Elder Noah Lawrence Featherstone: Email #93

June 18, 2018

Attalla, Alabama

Family! What an amazing week it has been here in Alabama, and as well with each of you. There are a few things that I want to say during this email so I hope I can get them all across fine. I guess first off I want to say Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's in our family. I am especially grateful for Dad and the amazing example he is to each of us. I wanted to share with each of you a few things that I am grateful for about Dad.

1) I remember being at Lake Powell and we were across the bay from Dad and Mom at about 10pm. All of the sudden we see the cliff walls light up. We look over and see Dad running away from the fire that he put gas on screaming, "AHHHHH!!!" He is always having fun and that is one thing I have learned from him. That there is always good in every situation. He is the creative KING and full of ideas to have a great time!

2) Growing up I always hated "Saturday Work Projects." But now looking back I am thankful that he taught me how to work and how to do a "5 Dollar Job." It will forever bless me knowing how to work hard and give it my all.

3) Being in-tune with the Spirit. Dad has always lived his life in a way that he would be worthy to use the priesthood if needed. He is an incredible example to me of following the Savior. He always showed us and didn't just tell us. He would talk to us about the importance of Daily Scripture Study and then you would walk in to his bedroom at night and he is there studying his scriptures. He has always relied on the Savior to know how to help each of us.

4) I could go on all day about how great Dad is but lastly I want to talk about his love for the Savior. Dad has always and continues to be a perfect example to me about how to love the Savior. He serves and he puts others before himself because he loves the Savior. He loves Jesus Christ. He is an example to me of being a disciple or a true believer. He is a "doer" of the word. I remember while I was home for a few weeks for surgery, Dad took me up to the camps with him and just showed me a good time and ministered unto me as the Savior would. I will forever be grateful for a diligent, steadfast, hard working, charitable, humble, prayerful, worthy, and Christlike Father. Thank you Dad. You're my hero.

Secondly, I want to say thank you to my Heavenly Father for preserving the life of Scotti Rae. I don't know all the details but I do know that God is watching over each of us. I believe that these feelings of gratitude that we have for Heavenly Father right now are very similar to how we will feel after we get to Him and realize the many times he has truly been walking by our side. He is with us and he is blessing us more than we know. I know that Scotti is evidence of a loving Father in Heaven. I don't know who Scotti talked to on the other side but I do know that she is here for a reason. I am truly grateful for the Lord's hand in our lives. I can't help but think that the people that were there to find her were sent to that specific spot for a specific reason and that it was to bring back Scotti. Please let Scotti know of my love for her.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about a miracle we saw this week in the work. Elder Vanderhoff and I taught someone this week named Dillon. We met him at his brother's house but he was super interested so we got his address and number and went by a different day. We stopped by on Friday and taught him bits and pieces of the Plan of Salvation. He had a lot of questions and brought up a lot of different scriptures in the bible about God's Plan of Us. He talked about Mansions, and 1000 years, etc. So as we went back on Sunday to teach him, we brought Brother Rebarchik with us. He is a member here in the Attalla Branch. We shared with him Genesis 49 that is basically Jacob's last blessing that he leaves with his sons. He gives Judah, and Joseph an especially large blessing compared to the rest. We as well shared with him Ezekiel 37 showing that Judah and Joseph's sticks will be one. Dillon talked about how the Bible is the stick of Judah but what is the stick of Joseph? Oh man... It was so pretty. Y'all should have seen his face when we introduced the Book of Mormon. We said, "Dillon, will you start today in the Book of Mormon?" He said, "Yeah I will! I'll pray about it as well like you said. I'll probably be through it by the time y'all come back on Tuesday." We will see how it goes tomorrow but that was for sure a miracle. He said, "Yeah I'm just super intrigued and I want to learn more about all of this." He is a great guy and he even pointed out that he was feeling the spirit as we were there. The Spirit was definitely testifying to him as we were with him.

Thank you for all you do! I love hearing about memorizing scriptures! They really are great. I've seen it to be such a blessing as we share the gospel with everyone we meet we are able to whip out a quick scripture and share a gospel truth with them.

Please know how grateful I am for each of you and the great examples you are to me. You are all continually in my prayers.