Emily's Blog: {Testimony Bonfire} A Girl's Camp Devotional

Before testimony meeting at Girl's Camp, the leaders gave a brief devotional on creating and maintaining a "Testimony Bonfire." This lesson was based upon this conference talk by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in October of 1992. He opens with the following story...

Many years ago, large packs of wolves roamed the countryside in Ukraine, making travel in that part of the world very dangerous. These wolf packs were fearless. They were not intimidated by people nor by any of the weapons available at that time. The only thing that seemed to frighten them was fire. Consequently, travelers who found themselves away from cities developed the common practice of building a large bonfire and keeping it burning through the night. As long as the fire burned brightly, the worlves stayed away. But if it were allowed to burn out and die, the wolves would move in for an attack. Travelers understood that building and maintaining a roaring bonfire was not just a matter of convenience or comfort; it was a matter of survival.

Elder Wirthlin relates this story to the importance of building and maintaining a testimony of the Lord, to avoid the attacks of Satan {wolves}. He states that we are all vulnerable to attack, and that we must protect ourselves through our burning testimony which we must build adequately and maintain carefully.

I was charged with creating a handout/s'more kit with components that would tie into the devotional. Each Leader, including myself, spoke briefly about the steps to building and maintaining a bonfire, using a part of the s'more kit for reference as well as quotes from the conference talk.

I also included a small bottle of water in the kit to represent "sin." Sin can quickly extinguish the Holy Spirit in our hearts, like water on the fire. Overall, I think this was a powerful and meaningful lesson for the girls. The Spirit was felt so strongly and the testimony meeting that followed really touched my heart. With so much media attention surrounding the LDS church regarding the Ordain Women Movement, it was comforting to know that these young girls have built their {testimony foundation} and are working hard to maintain their {spiritual bonfire}.