Email #67 - Birmingham Round 2

December 18, 2017

Birmingham, Alabama

Family! Transfers were this week.  I am back in the Spanish Branch in Birmingham. Long story short is that about 4 months ago, they combined the 2 Spanish Branches here in Birmingham to make a bigger one. So I am technically serving in the same spot I was in Feb-May but I'm now serving in the Cahaba Spanish Branch. Pretty Crazy! It's good to be back though and I have been well received back into the Branch. It's been good!

I don't know if y'all remember an investigator named Irma Ayala that I was teaching last time I was here... Elder Krupa and I tracted into her one day.  As I've been serving in other places she has continued to investigate the church and she really wants to get baptized but her husband at one point said that if she got baptized they would be getting a divorce. So she decided she was just going to keep meeting with the missionaries and learn more and more. In the meanwhile, Chayo (the husband) has slowly but surely been coming around. This is what I've heard from other missionaries. I've stopped in a few times while I've been in Birmingham but other than that I haven't been able to see them. I haven't been able to see all the change happening. Soooooooooo.... I stopped in with my new companion Elder Lewis this week.  We show up and they were super excited to see us. As they welcomed us into their house, there was a Latino Preacher talking to them. I guess he is Chayo's cousin.  He started talking to us and starts to really get into it and bash with us about what's right and what's really of God.  We just sat there and basically just took it. After about 2 minutes go by, Chayo, Irma, and us are all listening to this guy go off and talk about how Joseph wasn't a prophet and all this stuff about our church. All of the sudden, Chayo speaks up and just gets into it with him! haha! He basically bore his testimony of all the truthfulness of the message that we as missionaries bring. I wish y'all could have seen it. I was like drooling on the other side of the room thinking  "What is happening... Is that really Chayo?" Irma and Chayo continued to back us up hard core and we didn't say a word! He defended Joseph Smith, the church, the Savior, and all that we stand for. They aren't even members! It was amazing! I was just speechless. When I left Lorna the first time, Chayo hadn't even sat down in a lesson with us. He would just walk through or be in the other room the entire time. Irma had only been taught the first 3 lessons. Then the next thing I see of them is testifying to a Latino Preacher of the truthfulness of the Gospel. Irma mentioned a scripture that she found on her own in Revelations. It's Revelations 10:9-10 it says:

9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

She told him that this scripture is talking about the Book of Mormon. It was powerful. They are going to be baptized. I know it! They are so strong. Chayo is continuing to come around and I know that they will continue to grow. Will y'all keep them in your prayers and pray that they will come to the conclusion that they need to be baptized? I know that the Lord will answer our prayers. As we pray for specific things and for specific people he knows how he can help.

Thank you for all you do! I love and appreciate all the love you show me. I am so grateful for this Christmas Season and the opportunity we have to be able to reflect on the birth of our Savior. He lives! and He loves each of you. He has perfect gratitude for all you do. Have a great Christmas week. Love you all!

 The Carter Hill Crew

The Colvin Family. They are the greatest!

The Davis Family. Man... I'll miss them. Some of the most hysterical people down here!

 Patty and Meta

 The Jamaican! Elder Lewis is the man.

Elder Johnson and Elder Erickson at our Transfer Hub Meeting

Email #66 - Living Christmas Trees & Co-Prayers

December 11, 2017

Montgomery, Alabama

Okay! So I have some good stories for y'all this week. It makes me excited just getting ready to tell you!!! So first off, we got invited this week to go to a Christmas Concert at the First Baptist Church in downtown Montgomery. It was great. Not quite like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but it was amazing! What they do is they have a massive tree that everyone piles into and they all sing.  It's super cool! I'll send you some pictures so you can see what it looks like. But it was great! It was probably the biggest church in Montgomery. Just massive! It was super cool. I got chattin' with the lady sitting next to me and she mentioned that her son was the man on the drums. That was super awesome. So after the show, she turned to me and said, "Hey! Come with me! I want to introduce you to my son." So we went back and met a bunch of the performers and it was fantastic! There were all four missionaries from our ward there and as the Pastor was giving his little prayer and all that good stuff he kept looking at us really interestingly. It was kind of funny.  I don't know if he was intimidated or what but I guess all 4 of us lined up in white shirts and ties is scary! haha!

The other day we were at a Christmas Dinner party that a member invited us to. There were a bunch of latinos there which was great. We were able to meet a lot of new people. But as we were getting started and were about to say the prayer on the food when the man conducting said, "Would one of y'all missionaries say the prayer?" All the missionaries then looked at me... So I stood up and at the same time an elderly man stood up as well and said, "Hey let's do a Co-Prayer!" I instantly thought, "How in the world is this going to work? Am I just going to say like every other word or something and this prayer will be all over the place?" Oh my goodness. I was about to start laughing. So he started praying, "Oh Lord, Thank you for all you do for us Lord." Then I look up and he points to me... "Um... We are thankful for the opportunity we all have to be here together and celebrate the season of Christmas...." As I finished the prayer he said, "That was a great co-prayer. We should do that again sometime!" It was such a funny experience. Something I've never done before.

Well we hear about our Transfer news tonight so I'll let you know next week if I get transferred or not. Thank you for all you do! I love you all! Have a great week celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. #LighttheWorld He Lives, and He loves you!

Strength and Honor

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"
Elder Noah Featherstone

Post Temple Pictures ft. Elder Adams

Some of the Hooligans in the ward here

My man Daniel Gordon! He is the best poet the world has ever seen

 The First Baptist Church In Montgomery & The Living Christmas Tree!

 Elder Furgeson is one of the most hysterical elders out here

 Fausto! He is the man! He is one of our investigators!

Email #65 - A Quick One

December 7, 2017

Montgomery, Alabama

Family! I apologize. I don't have very much time today because we are headed up to Birmingham today to go to the temple but I will have another P-Day on Monday so I'll have to give you a bigger recap of the weeks miracles and experiences next week. Sounds good?!

The one experience I want to share with you is one that happened few days ago. As we were out visiting people, we got a text from a Less Active Member named Francisco. We had been trying to get in contact with him for a while but we hadn't heard anything because he is super busy and all that jazz. Side Note: Every Christmas Season the Montgomery Stake puts on an Interfaith Nativity for the whole community to come and see others Nativity decorations and to see Nativities from all over the world. I'll send you some pictures. But it's super cool! So anyways, Francisco said, "Hey Elders, Do y'all want to come to the Nativity with me and my family? My son Ayden will be there." We hadn't met Ayden before so we quickly rearranged our schedule and said something like, "SQUID LAUNCHER! OH YEAH!!!" hahah anyways! We went over and went through the Nativity with him and it was great. He told us he had a great time and that he really felt the Spirit in there. Oh yeah, another side note. He is a Hispanic so he invited us to come to his cousin's birthday party that evening. All of our appointments fell through and we were able to go over there for a while.  Everyone was so welcoming and just brought us right in. Man I love Hispanics. The are some of the most kind, generous, and loving people on the planet. We were able to have some great gospel conversations with a bunch of his family. It really was a great experience. All of our appointments fell through and the Lord provided us with another way to be able to share this great message. This work is full of miracles. The Lord is leading and guiding this work and he is watching over us.

I love you all! Merry Christmas this Christmas Season!

Strength and Honor

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"          Elder Noah Featherstone

The Nativity

THE MOTOWN CREW​

BIG SMILES Ft. Elder Braaksma

Email #64 - What a Week!

November 27, 2017

Montgomery, Alabama

Family! This week was complete CHAOS! Wow! I loved it! It was so darn much fun! We were just crazy crazy busy! But anyways, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I know it's late but I forgot to say that last week!

So! First off, This week for Thanksgiving we had 3 dinner appointments... I'm not complaining... but I ate sooooooo muchhhhhhh foooooddddd.... It was like way more than I should have been able to eat. I think the Lord was really helping us out here. But the food was just sooooooooo good! Man! I absolutely loved it! It was great! So it was quite the day! We had the turkey bowl in the morning and that was a ton of fun! Then we had a bunch of dinner appointments. Not a whole lot else happened that day because we had to drive up to Birmingham for the Spanish Conference for all the Spanish Missionaries the next day.

We had the Spanish Conference and it was a blast to see all the Spanish Missionaries! Since there are so many less Spanish missionaries, we are all really good friends so it was just a riot to be with all of them. It's a really tight knit group and it's a blast! It was super fun to see a lot of old companions, and good friends from the mission. During the conference, President Sainsbury talked a lot about really adapting the Spanish culture into our lives as missionaries. To find out what we can do to apply their culture into our everyday lives and have a blast doing it. So that's been on our minds a lot lately. It's a very interesting thought, but I do know that the people are a lot more willing to open up and hear our message when we are familiar and knowledgeable about their culture. So I'm excited to see what we can do here.

So as you know, Saturday was the Iron Bowl. Wow.... What a day! It's hysterical because you'll knock on some people's doors and they'll open up and say, "Hey, we're watching the game. You're welcome to come in, eat a burger and a hot dog, watch the game, but we can't talk right now. We can hang out and once the game is over I'd be happy to listen to you." Man... the southern hospitality really is a thing. They are so kind a loving but they really do love their Alabama Crimson Tide, and Auburn Tigers. It's hysterical! I love it!

Elder Oldham and I have been doing a lot of tracting and we ended up tracting into a Spanish Penecostal Preacher yesterday. ! It was super super interesting.  Elder Oldham is still getting a grasp on Spanish so I was doing most of the conversing with him, but it was a very interesting conversation to say the least. I think the one thing I learned from him is, no matter what you know, you aren't going to know everything. When a question arises that you don't know the answer to, go look and find an answer from God. He can give you the answers. We aren't ever going to know everything in this life, but we definitely can search the scriptures and rely on God for knowledge.

I love this gospel. This Thanksgiving and Christmas Season I want you all to know that I know that God lives. He has perfect gratitude for us, and he is cheering us on every step of the way through life. We have trials to help us grow and increase in knowledge. Without hard things we don't become better. He give us trials to help us grow and learn to rely on Him. I'm thankful for that. I love you all! You are in my prayers! Have a stellar week!

Also, Go search Light the World on Mormon.org and watch the Christmas Initiative for this year! Let's all get that Christmas Cheer out in the world! Let them know what we are capable of! WOOT WOOT!!! #lighttheworld

Strength and Honor

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

-Elder Noah Featherstone

Some Goats... and scenery​

"YA BIG BABY!"

More Hammock Pics

Round 2

More Alabama Scenery

Early Morning Football this week. BUT LOOK AT THE DELIVERY! Best ball I've ever thrown. ha!

Email #63 - The Message of the Restoration

November 20, 2017

Montgomery, Alabama

This week was CRAZY!  We were just go go go! So I have a really cool story and experience that happened this week.

This week we were stopping by a Less Active who we heard had a son-in-law who was interested in our message. We had a few extra minutes at the end of the night and so we decided to head over there! We stopped by and they welcomed us right in! We got to meet the whole family and we got to know them a little bit. As we were chatting, they mentioned that Charlie is interested in the message and that we share. Charlie then spoke up and asked, "I have been wanting to come closer to Jesus Christ and I heard that y'all could help me do that." Oh man... I got so psyched!!! That's like the greatest thing a missionary can ever hear!! HA! So we started right on into the Restoration. As we shared and asked him questions, he answered with sincerity, and was soaking in every word we said. He was leaned forward in his chair truly trying to understand what we were teaching. As I finished reciting the First Vision to him, he said, "I really like that." We then talked about how he can know for himself. As we asked him if he will read the Book of Mormon, he said, "I will read every single page." We then asked him to be baptized. He responded, "Yes, that is what I want." He then asked, "But how do I really know it is true? I have prayed and prayed asking for help and I don't feel like I've ever really received an answer." We then shared with him a few of our thoughts about truly coming to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Wow! We had one of the most amazing lessons with him. It's amazing how receptive someone is when they truly want to come closer to our Savior. It really is amazing. This message is true.

We had an exchange this week with the Elders that are serving in Greenville, AL. It was a blast! I'll send a few pictures of us doing some painting at Morgan Lee's house.

Also, this week we were teaching a friend named Fausto! We were talking about how to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Elder Oldham mentioned that we need to listen to the answers that God sends our way. Fausto then said, "Entonces... Necesito esperar 30 minutos para recibir una respuesta?" Translation: So I need to way like 30 minutes to get an answer? We then explained that he doesn't need to wait 30 minutes. It was a really good lesson though! Both Fausto and Charlie both really want to become better and more like our Savior and it makes it super exciting! I'm so glad I get to be a part of this work and be able to be a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ.

This week we also were driving home from an appointment after we had picked up the other Carter Hill Elders and I yelled, "ELDER ELDER ELDER ELDER!!!" The others said, " WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT!" I said, "TURN AROUND!!!" And the pictures will explain what we saw HAHA!! I love it!

Anyways! I hope you all have a great week! Remember that God loves you, and that He is cheering you on every step of the way! I love you all! You're in my prayers!

--

Strength and Honor

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

-Elder Noah Featherstone

Exchanges with Elder Hanratty! HE IS THE MAN! SO HYSTERICAL!

Paintin' on the roof with the man himself. Elder Oldham

Selfie from the Roof! Featuring Elders Hanratty, Standifird, and Oldham

)"ELDER ELDER ELDER ELDER!!!"

Hammocking over by the famous tree we always take a picture with. 

The hammocking crew this morning in Wetumpka

The Classic Tree we always take pictures in.​

The Canadian Elder Kapcsos!

Email #62 - HEYYYOOOO!!!

November 13, 2017

Montgomery Alabama

FAMILIA! QUE PASA?!! First off, Shout out to Brian and Kelsey! I'm super super psyched to hear all about your adventures in AUSTRALIA! That'll be amazing! Y'all are in my prayers!

Soooo... this week was a great one! Elder Oldham and I have been crazy crazy busy! We've been doing a lot of knocking doors and it's been stellar! We were out trying to visit some people the other day and we didn't get any answer at the door. So we were lookin' around seeing who was in the area that we could talk to and there were three ladies standing outside a door a little ways down. We had a great conversation with them and were able to share the Book of Mormon with them. They wanted us to come back so we have another appointment with them tomorrow which should be great! I'm psyched!

This week we've been meeting tons and tons of people. It's been great! We have been biking a TON and it gets absolutely insane on the roads down here! But it's all good. Everytime my thighs start burning cause we've been biking a while I yell to Elder Oldham. "WE'RE GETTING HUGE!!!" hahaha! It's the greatest!

We had an amazing experience on Saturday! We had just the most amazing day planned. We had 6 appointments and we were just super busy. I was psyched! We went to the first appointment at 11. Nothing... Second. nothing. Third....... AHHHH Nothing... All of them fell through. COME ON! I said to Elder Oldham at about 8pm, "We gotta finish strong today!" So we decided to go to Walmart and do some Store Contacting.  We decided we were just going to show everyone in Walmart who the missionaries are! We had 30 minutes. Ready, Set, GO! As we were headed in, we looked over, and WAM! There's one of our investigators Anthony! (We had tried to see him that day but nobody answered.) He is such a STUD! We had a great chat with him! We were able to talk to a few more people too!

On Wednesday's here in good ol' Mo-Town we do some service at what we call The Animal Prison. I'll let you think about what that is;) haha! We saw some pretty cool stuff - The Panthers, Lions, Giraffe's, Elephants, etc. It's so amazing all the things that we have here on this earth. The Plan of Salvation really is God's Plan for us. It's amazing how flawless it is. This gospel is pure! I love it so much!

Can I just say again, The Book of Mormon is true! We were knocking some doors and I looked down at the Book of Mormon in my hands and I just got a smile on my face. This work is amazing. The Book of Mormon is true and has so much power.

I hope y'all finna have a great week! LES QUIERO FAMILY!!!

--

Strength and Honor

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

Elder Noah Featherstone

District Selfie with the one and only..... ELDER SULLIVAN

Montgomery Zone Conference with YA BOYZ

Post Zone Conference Selfie 

Gettin' hauled off at the Animal Prison #cleaningcrew

Elders Braaskma y Featherstone

Email #61 - An Hour of Mighty Prayer

November 6, 2017

Montgomery, Alabama

Family! It's been another quick week but definitely another great one! It's definitely one of those weeks that I can't really remember a whole lot of what happened... So I'll let you know the few things that I can remember.  So first off, this week we were doing more service for an inactive member that I've talked about a little bit. His name is Morgan Lee. He called us up and said, "Hey Missionaries, I've got a lot going on and I'm needing some help painting my house this week. Could y'all come over and help me for a little bit?" We are always jumping at service opportunities so we jumped at it and said, "Of Course!" So little did I know that I would be painting on the roof of his house! haha! It wasn't as scary as it sounds but I was painting a lot of the upper reaches of the front of his house. We are beginning to become professional painters. We also painted cupboards for a family in the ward as well this week. So it has been the Elders and their paint brushes this week.

President Sainsbury came to all the missionaries this week and told us that he wanted to have an hour of mighty prayer in the mission. On Sunday from 4-5pm we would all unite in prayer for our families, our friends, our investigators, the members, etc. It was an amazing experience. Knowing that another 180 missionaries across Alabama are praying for all those that are searching for this gospel was amazing. I was able to pray for each of you specifically and for your needs and for each of you to feel of the love the Lord has for you. It is definitely something that I hope our family can do in the future. To know and feel so close to our Father in Heaven is something that we need on a regular basis in our lives. At this point in time, if I were to share with y'all one of the most important things I've learned on my mission it has been the power of prayer. When we truly rely on the Savior, he will comfort us. He knows what we are going through and through prayer we are able to unite ourselves with Him. He loves us and desires that we reach out to Him. He wants us to have a relationship with Him. I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have of the truthfulness of this message.

Thank you all for your support and prayers in behalf of the missionaries across the world. I can't describe what a joyous experience it is to be a representative of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

You're in my prayers! Have a stellar week! Love you all!

Strength and Honor

Elder Noah Featherstone

Part of the Carter Hill District

Elders Braaksma, Ferguson, Oldham and I up in Wetumpka this morning!

Email #60 - When He Throws You a Bone...

October 30, 2017
Montgomery, Alabama

Family! This week has been amazing! We have been extremely blessed.

Last week, Elder Oldham and I were tracting late at night and we knocked into a single lady named Creshanda. So we set up a return appointment and went back on Tuesday morning this week. She opened up and let us right in. We brought with us a member from the ward who is on the high council. We shared the Restoration with her and she was extremely attentive. Throughout the lesson this brother who was with us continued to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the First Vision. As we were finishing up the lesson, we invited her to be baptized and she accepted! It was such a cool experience! Being here and being able to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon is amazing. The gospel is true! 

So a few other funny experiences-

At night after we get back at 9, we have been playing basketball in the parking lot at our Apartment Complex. But we don't have a real hoop. We just have one of those Little Tikes Basketball hoops. So we were able to do some after hours contacting in the parking lot! It was one of the greatest things ever!!! hahahaha!!! 

So just about everyone in Montgomery loves to play basketball! So we were trying to go through some area book contacts and we invited a few that said they like to play basketball to our weekly basketball at the church. So we invited 2 people and about 15 showed up... It was a little hectic... We are trying to figure out how to change the time we play and stuff now... haha! My companion is like 6' 6" so I would oop him and he would dunk on people and it was just fun! #whiteshirtnametagballin All the people that play with us call me Steve Nash and my companion Gordon Hayward. It's hysterical! We have a few people that have really become interested in the gospel through basketball so it's been a good way of finding. 

Well! That's about it for the week! I hope you all have a great week! I love you all! You're in my prayers!

Strength and Honor

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

-Elder Noah Featherstone

Email #59 - God's Perfect Gratitude

October 23, 2017

Montgomery, Alabama

Dearest Family,

I hope your week has been just grand! I heard about Brian and Kelsey headin' out to Australia soon. You're in my prayers! We'll miss you! Well I guess I'll still be just as far away from you hahaha!! But you'll definitely be in my prayers!

This week was really quick. It felt like I was just talking to you. We had some bad news this week. We had a few new investigators that we had started to teach and were keeping commitments and doing really well but we got calls and text from them all and they aren't wanting to continue hearing our message. It's hard at first but I then realize, it's just not their time yet. The Lord is preparing those that are ready to hear the message and they weren't there yet. But they will be soon.

I was reading in my scriptures this week and was thinking about gratitude. I was talking with President Sainsbury about gratitude in my interview with him this week and he made a great observation that hasn't crossed my mind before. God has perfect gratitude for us. He is perfectly grateful for all we do and all that we try to do. He is grateful that I am on a mission and doing my best to be exactly obedient and follow the Savior. At times we don't realize that gratitude is a Christlike attribute. He is grateful for everyone. I want to tell you all that that is completely true. He loves us perfectly and He is perfectly grateful for all that we do to serve those around us and become more like Him. I'm thankful for you all and the support and prayers in behalf of the missionaries on the Lord's errand.

I hope you all have a great week! You are all in my prayers! Thank you for all you do and the unseen acts of service and love you do for those around you.

-I apologize I don't have any pictures this week. I left my camera on accident again... There will be a surplus next week.

Strength and Honor

Elder Noah Featherstone

Email #58 - Scaring the Neighborhood

October 16, 2017

Montgomery, Alabama

Heyyyyoooooo!! This week was so fun! I feel like I say this every week but I don't have a ton of time. But I do have a few funny missionary stories for you.

First off, the other night Elder Oldham and I had a few appointments fall through, and then our back up plans fell through so we went to plan C which is usually knocking el mundo. Anyways! We started knocking and it was about 7:15 PM and we knocked on the first door and nobody answered. We got to the second door and nothing. At this point, Elder Oldham and I are just starting to get frustrated. We knocked on the 3rd door, and this lady yells, "Who is it?" "It's the missionaries!" "Who?" "The Missionaries!" "Who?" a little slower this time. "The Missionaries." Then a younger child who was probably 10 years old said with the deepest voice he could muster, "Who is it?" "It's the Missionaries!" "Who?!" "The Missionaries!" We then heard footsteps running away while the child was yelling, "AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" It was hysterical! They soon after opened up and we were able to talk to them for a minute. It turned into a great lesson. As we were leaving, the mom said to us, "You guys should wear some lights or something when you are out at night!" haha! The best part is that we are going back tomorrow to go see them! ha!

*Fast forward to the next door that we knocked on* After about 30 seconds after we knocked and were about to move on, a man walked out his side door and said, "Not you guys again..." I said, "Hey! We're not that bad! ha!" He then said, "I'm catholic, so y'all are heathens!" "What?! We're heathens?" "yeah!" We ended up talking to him for a minute and were able to get him laughing which was good, but it was pretty hysterical! I've never been called a heathen yet out here.

This Sunday we had Stake Conference here in the Alabama Montgomery Stake and it was great! Bishop Dean M. Davies was here and he had some amazing thoughts. Most of the meeting was centered on the family. It really is essential to have a strong central unit in the family. The home needs to be a place of refuge and a place of peace. That is something that was always taught in our family from Mom and Dad and I'm extremely grateful that they taught the importance of good family relationships. I'm extremely thankful for you all, for your love and support you show me. I pray you all have a great week!

Strength and Honor

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

Elder Noah Featherstone

 My Man Elder Faustin came back to visit the mission this week!