Elder Noah Lawrence Featherstone: Email #33

April 24, 2017

Birmingham, Alabama

Hola Familia! Como han estado? I hope you have all been doing well. This week sounds like it's been an eventful one. I love it! I love hearing about all the fun stuff that is going on and all the success that you are all having. This week was a busy one here as well.

This week we have been doing a lot of service. And yes... I have probably used a weedwacker more this week than I have in my entire life! In the trailer parks where a lot of the members live there are a lot of weeds and their weeds have gotten a little out of control. They called up the missionaries and we got to work! I have used a weedwacker a lot! But it's been a complete blast! We may or may not have used a machete to cut down things as well... ;) Ha!

On Saturday we were able to visit a lot of our progressing investigators and they are all doing super well. It's amazing to see how far they have progressed and how they have changed and become more like our Savior. It makes me so happy to see how they have changed their lives to truly do what the Lord wants for them. We were able to visit a member referral named Gabriella who has been doing awesome. She is the neighbor of the Relief Society President in the Branch and they are super good friends, so I sure hope that it continues to get better.

This week a member called us asking if we could come and give her son Angel, who has been sick, a blessing. So yesterday we went over and gave him a blessing and it was super amazing. Whenever we have the chance to give a blessing I always really look forward to it because it has an amazing spirit to it. It is incredible to truly be a mouthpiece of the Lord in that situation. When the person truly has their faith in the Lord, and knows and loves Him, there is an incredibly strong spirit present and it always makes me feel of the joy that we can find if we are truly following the Savior.

As I was doing a lot of weedwacking this week, I was thinking about the symbolism in it. You are probably wondering where I'm going with this... But just hold on ok?! ha! So let's say we have this nice fresh cut lawn, but we haven't used the trimmer to make the edges look good as well. So this is how we are as members of the church. We get baptized and we have a freshly cut lawn, but then it continually grows back as none of us are perfect like the Savior. We all sin. So then we go to church each Sunday and it's like a newly cut lawn again! It looks great! It's green, and it's free of leaves. Then you have those edges that still look like they need some work. The Savior is there to help us get rid of that extra grass that is sticking out over the sidewalk. To help us really do His will and not Our will. We continually read the scriptures, we serve others, we pray, we obey the commandments, and we continually grow closer to our Savior. We need to find those little things in our lives that we can make goals to continually do better with. Those are the things that are preventing us in having the Spirit as fully as we could. I have been thinking about that all week and have been making goals to become who the Savior wants me to be, and to have the Spirit as fully as I can.

This week has been a great week! I've really loved it. Thank you for all you do! I hope you have a great week. You are all in my prayers! EVERY ONE OF YOU! EVEN YOUR DOGS! "Stop petting the dog!" I said that the other day and everyone looked at me really weird... #familyjokes

LOVE YOU ALL!

Strength and Honor

Elder Noah Lawrence Featherstone