As ambassadors to our peers, it is of the utmost importance that we learn to work as a team. We have to learn to communicate and work effectively, united with our peers in the Church, while still setting a good example.

No good team can function effectively with less than the full participation of each of its members, which was clear to all those who attended Ambassador Youth Camp this year.

At camp we led a highly team-oriented lifestyle. We woke up together, we ate together, we played team sports together. We worked together to get to breakfast on time and to ensure that we all had at least five minutes in the shower each day. There was no activity, chore or goal we completed single-handedly.

By putting anything less than 100% into any activity at camp you were not only cheating yourself out of the satisfaction of a job well done, but you were stealing from your teammates the opportunity to successfully and effectively complete a given task to the best of your team’s ability.

This year’s campers were conscientious about ensuring that they gave each activity their all. I did not experience first-hand the disappointment of having a teammate not participate fully in any particular activity. In fact, the only problem I had was when my canoeing partner was distracted by the exquisite view and inexplicably forgot the “pull the paddle through the water” part of paddling.

The effort put into each activity by every camper this year was simply inspiring. Waking up each morning and putting all that you have into the day is something I am not exactly accustomed to doing. I am one of those people able to plow my way through a semester, pull a last-ditch effort, and still manage to get decent grades. This bad habit has caused me to simply float through life without really trying too hard at anything. As you should be able to guess, this attitude simply does not suffice at camp. Letting the team down is just not an option. AYC has shown me just how selfish this way of thinking was and how satisfying it is to complete a task to the best of your ability.

After day two (volleyball, dodgeball and swimming) of putting my new resolution into practice, my muscles were sorer than I can ever remember. I’m not entirely sure whether day three (soccer) made my muscles better or worse, but day four (canoeing) made sitting down a very complicated procedure, and raising your hand more difficult than it should be. I put my all into the activities at camp and my muscles felt it. But through the pain came the satisfying feeling of knowing that I aided my team to the best of my ability. At the end of the day, I was able to go to bed with no regrets and no guilty feelings about unfinished homework.

This year’s AYC has taught me just how important and satisfying it is to put everything you have into each day. I can now see that simply putting forth enough effort to just get by is not sufficient, and not living up to your true potential is unfair to your team, your workmates or yourself.