Camp Liahona Redwood - Church Owned
The smell of the fresh air among the trees, an outside picnic, getting to know some of our senior missionaries, and carving a bear with a chainsaw was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the Redwoods of California.
Within our mission boundaries is a 440-acre protected wilderness property that runs along the Gualala River owned by the church. Nestled inside this area among the redwoods and pine forests is Camp Liahona Redwood a youth camp that the church owns and operates. We have two missionary couples that live and serve fulltime there, maintaining the camp. The Hustedts and the Oswalds are the missionaries at the current time.
the Hustedts, the Quinns, and the Oswalds
These senior missionary couples have been called on a “recreation management mission.” They work hard. Our young missionaries go up there now and then to serve and help with some of the camp upkeep.
The senior missionaries there also run “the group” of church members that gather at the camp’s lodge for church services each Sunday. The group consists of 30 Native Americans from the Pomo tribe that live nearby on the Kashia Reservation. The also have 15 members who live out on the coast. We stayed overnight on Saturday and it was a sweet experience to watch as a handful of people showed up for services and the sacrament Sunday morning. The missionaries also provided a meal afterwards.
Inside the lodge at Camp Liahona Redwood - Sunday setup for Sacrament Meeting
The youth that live in the eight stakes that make up our mission boundaries attend Camp Liahona Redwood each summer for 4 to 5 days during June through August. The Stake provides the food, activities, and supervision for their camp week. The camp sleeps 222 people and family reunions can rent the facility during the time youth campers are not there. It is a wonderful camp which includes a confidence/teamwork building course, kayaking, canoeing, swimming hole, archery, ball field, volleyball, horseshoes, climbing wall, and hiking.
The camp’s activities are designed to have youth ages 12-18:
· Draw closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
· Feel the influence of the Spirit
· Serve others
· Build friendships and unity
· Learn skills
· Appreciate God’s creations.
· Have fun.
Sister Quinn carving a bear out of a log with a chainsaw
One of our senior missionaries, Sister Hustedt, had carved a bear out of a log with a chainsaw. She mentioned she could teach me how to do it. I wanted to learn so I took her up on it. I have never worked with a chainsaw before and carving the bear was harder than I thought. We watched a You Tube video with a step by step tutorial on how to carve a bear. Although my finished bear looks like a novice carved it – I think it turned out pretty cute. (see below) At least I didn’t by accident carve off the bear’s ear or his nose or a finger of mine!
Interesting fact. There is a standard for our young missionaries that they can not use powers tools on their mission. This rule of course does not apply to Senior missionaries, especially the ones who work at the camp.
President Quinn and I were glad we could spend a short 24 hours there. We learned a lot about the camp and the many duties of our senior missionaries who serve there. It was great to get to know the Hustedts and Oswalds better. They are good people and a lot of fun. We are grateful for their voluntary service.
Thanks for reading my mission updates! - Elaine
The carved bears! We burned their noses with a torch to make them black.
Headed back to Santa Rosa I took this photo. I thought it was pretty funny. It is a very curvy road to get back home. In some places a very narrow road too. (Healdsburg is the town just north of Santa Rosa.)
