Week one!‏

Hello everybody!  So this week has been a little different, yet the same at the same time!  So I have a new companion and his name is E. Anderson, pretty easy to remember considering were related to Anderson.  As far as i know though were not related to this particular Anderson.  So this week has been pretty good.  Yesterday I was able to give a blessing to Tim and it was really good.  I think this is the first blessing that i was comfortable with giving, as in not scared and not sure what to say and what not.  Other then that though things have been pretty normal.  It's been kind of hard to get things into order and kind of  know what to do because E. P was here for so long he just kind of planned out our days with out asking me too much.  So now I’m trying to figure out what to do, but things are getting easier every day.  Pretty much all that we have been doing is introducing E. Anderson to the members and recent converts and trying to introduce him to the people were trying to teach.  We haven’t really taught any lessons so far but we have been teaching members spiritual thoughts.  Really that’s all that has been going on.  So I think that is all that i have to tell you today :) I love you all and i hope you have a great week!

-- Love

Elder Camron Foust

Staying in Bristol‏

Hello everybody!  So this week has been good.  This past week we found out that E. P is going to be leaving to Nashua N.H.  That means that since he has been in this are for 10 months that he has/had a lot of people to say goodbye to.  So that pretty much means that all we have been doing the last couple of days is saying goodbye to a lot of members.  One nice thing about it though is that I get a picture with all the cool families before I leave so I don't really have to worry about it as much :D.  So if any of you remember, when i was in Amherst before I left, one of the members too us out to a Chinese/Japanese restaurant.  I took a couple of videos that had some tricks and what not with the person cooking rite in front of us.  Well the Paterson family took us to a place like that last night and it was pretty darn good i thought.  Like i told my mom in her e-mail, I even ate about half of my veggies (minus the onion) which were carrots, cucumber, broccoli, and onion but like i said i didn't even tough those.  I ate everything except all the broccoli.  I had about 5 pieces of that before i had to stop haha.  Now if most of you don't know (which i think most of you do) i really hate veggies, so that is a pretty big feat for me to pull off.  The member even said that he was proud of me haha :D  Sunday was pretty good as well.  The Torington elders had a baptism, so we decided that we would go to that to support them.  It was an alright service a little unorganized, but still worked out well.  It was nice to see the baptism though :) always is.  Monday this week was Patriots day.  We received an e-mail from President last week that told us that we should have a zone activity that day and basically take a half P-day so that was pretty nice.  We ended up laying Soccer, Kick Ball, Ultimate Frisbee (but with a Football), Basketball, Speedball, and i think that's about it.  It got to like 95 that day and we were all exhausted from the heat after 2 hours of being outside.  So we ended up going to the church so we could have some AC to help cool us down and nice cold water.  So this week there was the normal amount of service and a lot of member visits.  Nothing too amazing to inform you about when it comes to teaching and wut not because of that reason.  It's been a great week though :) Well i hope you all have an amazing week!  love you all!

-- Love

Elder Camron Foust

Transfer Week

Well what do you know it's been another 6 weeks! Huh that went by fast. usually does now a day's though :) so shouldn't really be a surprise to anybody. Well this week I was in Torington for a day with E. Wilson. It was like most tours I have been on but it was still good to get out of Bristol for a day have have something different. After I got back on Wednesday it was rite back to doing service. I believe it was Friday when we helped sister Dea with her garden. We pulled up a lot of dead brush and took out a lot of rocks. Beneath the rocks there was some gravel that we needed to get rid of. so before i got started i was thinking there was probably going to be maybe an inch deep of gravel and it was maybe 10ft long or so 3 rows that we were going to do that day and the other 3 another day. Well little did we know that it was actually morel like 10inches deep! The hole time i was thinking why in the world did this person need to make a hole this big to put a rock on top of it???? i still don't have an answer but maybe my dad will. I mean if he didn't want it to settle I was thinking an inch would be more than enough but maybe i don't know much about this. Anyway that took a good portion of that day up and it was a lot of fun still. Saturday was pretty good. We went to brother artiboni's and he took us to one of his friends house that got hit pretty bad with the hurricane then the October storm. There is all sorts of brush and tree limbs everywhere that brother artiboni is getting rid of slowly. So we helped him get rid of some of that stuff on Saturday. After we were done he was nice enough to take us to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. I had a steak chimichanga and it was pretty good actually.

As for lessons, we actually had a member come with us to a lesson on Thursday after District Meeting. We went and visited with Patti and tried to teach her a first lesson. She ended up asking us if the ward could help her with some food because she was struggling. We told her that we would let the bishop know and he would get everything figured out. When we finally got to talk with the bishop, we told him the person's situation and the first thing he said was, " are you talking about Patti". Rite then E. P. and i both were thinking o crap this is not good if he already knows who were talking about. We soon found out that she has been around for a while and that she just likes to use the church to get what she wants. So that put a small damper on our spirits because we had a date for her and everything, but we dropped that pretty fast. O well i guess :) no big deal we still got other people we can attempt to teach.

Well that's pretty much been my week in a quick overview. Sunday went pretty well, we had some really good speakers and a wonderful dinner with the Patterson's, Neely's, and Scherer's. We had ham, funeral potatoes, corn, roll's, jello, and orange roll's. Then for desert we had some strawberry short cake :). So Sunday went well and it was a pretty good day for sure. Well that's it for this week. Ill be letting you know next Monday if I'm leaving, getting a new comp, or if everything is going to stay the same. Till then :) love you all and have a great week.

--
Love

Elder Camron Foust

4th & last conference‏

Why hello there everybody.  So Saturday and Sunday as most of you know was conference weekend.  This weekend for missionaries usually goes by pretty fast because our days are planned out for use.  Basically we wake up, study go to the church, watch the first session, eat lunch, watch the second session, eat dinner, then either visit a family or go to priesthood meeting if it's Saturday, and call it a day pretty much.  I don’t remember what the talks were about, but I remember that I really enjoyed the ones that Bednar and Holland gave in the priesthood meeting and then all the ones that had to deal with the family.  I've been thinking about family a lot lately and I’m really not sure why that is could be cuz im going to be home soon or it could be because I’m thinking of my future family.  Whatever the reason those were the talks that stood out to me.  So this last Wednesday we had out Zone meeting.  This is where the entire Zone gets together and we have a Zone wide meeting that runs like District meeting, but with the zone.  We talked a lot about finding and how to be better teachers when it comes to teaching out members.  During the meeting we were getting interviewed by Prez. Evans.  That day E. P. and I were going on tours with the Zone Leaders.  E. Yim came to Bristol with me and E. P. went to East Hartford.  E. Yim and I were roommates when I was in Cambridge so it was cool serving with him for a day.  Thursday I was with E. Yim till around 4 p.m. We did some Service in the morning with Tim, and then went street contacting for a little bit before we had to drive up to East Hartford to switch back.  For service this week it's been pretty normal.  We helped brother Moore again, getting wood from his back yard so we can start cutting it this week.  We also helped a non member family cut and stack some of their wood also.  Their names are Bob and Karen.  They were taking the lessons before, but they didn’t like the face that missionary's get moved around so they stopped investigating.  We go there from time to time and help them out, usually in the summer though.  They have 4 German shepherds, one of them being a puppy that is only 11 weeks old I believe :) he is pretty cute to say the least.  I got asked the other day by a member what one thing I really miss about home is and i told her that I miss my dogs quite a lot.  So anytime we go to somebody's house and they have a dog :) I get pretty excited and play with the dog for a minute.  So it's April already and I just switched the calendar that Lyndi gave me last November again.  Pretty crazy that it's April, March just flew by.  I will be hitting 20 months in the field here pretty soon and i will be considered an "Old" missionary haha!  Pretty funny i think.  Well i believe that is all i have to say for now :) so i hope you all have a great week!

-- Love

Elder Camron Foust

Spring or Summer?‏

Hey everybody!  So this week has been pretty good I would say.  The weather has been crazy though.  Everybody though spring was on its way but I guess summer decided that he wanted to come a bit earlier then usual.  It's been in the mid 70's most of the week and a couple days even hit the mid to upper 80's!  Luckily we have been outside a lot this past week helping people out so we have been getting a lot of sun and have been able to enjoy the nice weather. 

 Tuesday i was in Avon for the day on tours.  It was pretty good i guess.  We ended up walking a total of about 6 miles going to the library and back to the apartment.  After that we just went to a couple members houses and tracked a bit.  Like i said though this past week has been mostly service again.  Saturday we went from brother Ardiboni to sister Dea's to brother Patterson's.  Really I wish i could tell you something different then just doing service for others but that is really most of what we have been doing lately, and its been keeping us extremely busy.  Though I do have kind of a cool/simple story to tell that happened on Thursday morning while we were driving to District meeting.  Before we leave the house to go anywhere we say a prayer.  In the prayer I asked that we would be able to resist the temptations that came our way thought the day.  As we were driving to the meeting I realized that I had the very peace calm feeling around me and it was really nice actually.  I realized at that moment that I was being comforted and that my prayer had and was going to be answered thought the day.  And all I really remember is that that day I didn’t feel too terribly tempted, and also that when I was tempted I was able to change my thoughts quite easily.  So the moral of the story is that prayer works :) so you should all try it and keep trying until it’s just a good habit that you have. 

 Well I wish I had more to tell you, but I’m having trouble remember what happened this week other then service :) which is always good.  So I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

-- Love

Elder Camron Foust

Hopefully this works‏

Alright I just noticed I talk a lot about service in my e-mail in this area but o well its what we do here.  So here are the past two weeks of e-mails that I guess some people aren’t getting!!!!!!

Why hello there everybody!  So this week has been pretty good I must say.  For the most part though we did a heck of a lot of service, which I do enjoy.  So let’s see what days did we do service.  So Tuesday we did like we usually do with brother moore.  We cut some wood and also went and got some wood from off the top of his property.  Aslo when we were up there, E. P. showed me a swing that they had that their kids use to swing on when they were much younger.  This swing puts you WAY up in the air and is kinda scary but pretty awesom at the same time.  Then on Friday i believe we did some service as well.  We helped somebody move into a new apartment and that took up the better part of the day.  Saturday we played soem b-ball with the ward till about 12.  After that we went to the Jameson house and helped them paint the basement for a good 2 hours.  Then around 3 we went to Brother Ardiobonies place and helped him stack/move some wood around his yard and that took till about 6 and then he fed us dinner, so that took up pretty much the rest of the day.  This next week we will be having a lot of service opportunities again which I’m excited for.  We were able to teach Tom this week.  E. P. and i were trying to figure out what we should teach him, but neither of us could think of anything so we finally decided to pick up where we left of last time and that was on the Holy Ghost.  At first things were going alright.  We asked Tom a simple question about the H.G. and he answered that question for a good 10-15 minutes.  When we finally got thing back on track and we were starting to bring in the spirit, the phone rang......this always happens and it's quite annoying.  Well sadly the phone call was a bearer of bad news and what little we had of the spirit in the room just vanished like that.  So we tried to bring it back again, but we were uncessfull.  From that experience i could tell that the adversary was trying really hard to keep the spirit from being there and I must say he did a pretty good job at it, but that doesn’t change anything :) we will just go to Tom's house again and hope that the environment will be better this go around.  But the cool thing is that Tom needed to hear about the H.G. and how he can help us through our trials and make things seams a bit lighter then they were before.  So all in all i would say that it was still a successful visit :).  Well that’s pretty much all the excitement ive had this week.  I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Alright so yes I am staying in Bristol and so is elder P. :) so pretty much no new changes this transfer and I’m ok with that.  So my mom has asked me for this month to put something up about luck with the Holy Ghost.  So I’m going to do the best that I can this month to see if I can pull something off every week to tell you about.  So this week I had something in mind, not really sure if it was luck or not but it was still a simple but interesting thing that happened.  So like i said it was pretty simple.  E. P and i were having personally study one day and when we finished we went into comp study.  Well most missionaries talk a little bit about what they studied and try to learn from one another.  Anyway I was reading in Alma somewhere I believe and it was on being forgiving of our sins, and E. P was reading something about committing sins and how they can condemn us.  Those two tings were exactly what we needed to teach Tim and Carol that day and it was just kind of cool to think that we were both prompted to study those two different topics so that we would be prepared that day to teach :) so that’s the story I have for you this week.  So what happened this week, well WE GOT BROTHER ARDIBONI TO CHURCH.....AND HIS WIFE!!!!  It was pretty epic actually.  We went over there Sunday morning and said Brother Ardibonie....your coming to church today.  He gave a couple of excuses like I don’t know where my clothing is, then his wife said o it’s in the closet haha.  He said a couple other things as well but finally he just said "Ah the heck with it I might as well give up and go" lol anyway it was really awesome and great to see him at church.  He hasn't been to church in about 5 years I think so that was a great accomplishment for E. P and I :).  Let’s see what else happened....so I just realized that I have me new planner on me so I don’t remember what happened lat week haha, o well :).  O ya so the other day I made a dinner for one of our members who just had surgery on her spine, she had a ruptured disc so she has been in a lot of pain lately, but the surgery went well.  Anyway I made her chicken and rice and just to let my mom know what kind it was, I used the breading that you sent with me when I left on my mish.  It was pretty good :) not as good as my mom makes it but what the heck I think I did a pretty good job :) well i think that it for now :) i love you all and i hope you have a great week!

Well there you go :) love you all have a great week!
-- Love

Elder Camron Foust

Service week.‏

So apparently people haven’t been getting my e-mails lately and I’m not sure why.  I guess ill send the last two weeks worth of e-mails again and hopefully you all get them this time :) if you received them already, well sorry that you have to get it again :).  So this week has been full of service, pretty much none stop service really.  Let’s begin on Tuesday though.  So this last Tuesday we had leadership training and since E. Piachitelli is the DL we went to that.  It started on 9AM and we didn’t get out of there till 530PM!!!!  Holy long meeting, but it was good :).  Probably one of the few meetings where I was able to stay awake the entire time and not be completely bored out of my mind haha.  We talked about a lot of thing but one thing that we talked about was talking to 10 extra people a day that we hadn't planned on.  Funny to think that were planning to talk to 10 people we didn’t plan on talking to....now figure that one out ;).  Well anyway the next day, Wednesday, we helped a less active family move.  All we did really was put stuff in a truck so they could drive to Florida.  Kinda cool though I got a couple drafting things out of it so that was worth while :).  I got a portable drafting table and a drafting ruler so woot.  Thursday we went to brother Moore and helped him fix a lot of equipment again.  This time we fixed a wood chipper and a trailer hitch.  Friday we helped Tim again on the house that he is fixing up on the inside.  I cuz a lot of trim again and got that pretty much all done.  I guess next time we go over that he is going to ask me to cuz tile....Dad never taught me that but I guess I might as well give it a try :) I did watch him cut tile and I do pretty good after I watch somebody do it.  Saturday we helped Brother Ardibonie again.  Pretty much did the same thing we always do, cut wood and stack it :)

but its always fun.  Later that day we went over to Sister Dea's house and set up her patio for the summer!!!  It hit 70 that day and I think yesterday it hit 80.....it seams like were sipping spring and going rite into summer!  Nor sure if i like that or not.  I would prefer a spring because summer as a missionary kind of sucks seeing as we are wearing dark clothing and sweating up a storm!  So ya this week had a BUNCH of service for sure :) but that is something I truly enjoy and am glad that we have so many service opportunities in this area.  Sunday though was just a normal day for the most part.  We went to this park, and let me tell you it is one nice park for the community, anyway we went there and started talking to random people trying to talk to our ten for the day.  It was interesting to see, in such a short time, so many different personalities.  A couple people just said hi back.  Others talked to us for a second and it was nice.  Then there were others who told us to go to heck and yelled at us as we walked by haha.  The only thing you can do when that happens is laugh and keep on moving :) you get use to it after 19 months......holy wow 19 months IM GETTIN OLD!!!  Well I think that’s about all I got for this week :) have a wonderful week everybody!!!

Love

Elder Camron Foust