Email #99 - Praying for Miracles

July 30, 2018

Gadsden, Alabama

"HEY YOU GUYS!!!!" How in the world are you doing? I hope this week has been 
fantastic. It's been a stellar week here in Gadsden. I am running really low on 
time today so I'm going to keep it short but I want to tell you a few things that 
happened this week.

1) I was asked last minute to give a talk on Personal Revelation in Sacrament 
Meeting. Somehow, with the help of the Lord, I was able to pull off a somewhat 
decent talk. They asked me to speak for 15 minutes but since I was the 
concluding speaker I ended up with 20-25 minutes! haha!

2) We had a really cool experience this week. Before we had left the apartment 
at 10am, we said a prayer that we would be able to find, and teach someone 
today that would listen to our message and keep the specific commitments 
that we extend to them. As we went throughout the day, not much was 
happening and I just kept praying in my heart that we would see a miracle. 
The previous day we had followed up with someone that was interested but 
he was busy. So as we were out and about, Elder Quayle said, "We need to 
go see that lady that we met yesterday." I responded, "You realize it hasn't 
even been 24 hours yet right? I don't want to overwhelm her." He insisted so 
we drove over to her house and knocked. She came on out and said that she 
had a few minutes to chat with us. As we sat there on her porch and shared 
the Restoration with her, you could see how intently she was listening and 
how it was something that she needed in her life. As we finished sharing the 
First Vision, she was locked in to everything that was mentioned. As I started 
to introduce the Book of Mormon to her, she got this really puzzled look on 
her face. She said that she had ordered the Book of Mormon on Amazon a 
few weeks previously and was studying it! *insert jaw drop* I was nothing 
short of speechless. I didn't know what to say. Elder Quayle kind of stepped 
in and was super excited! It was such a cool experience to get to see how 
we as missionaries are led and guided by the Spirit to those that will listen. 
I am so grateful that Elder Quayle listened to the promptings that he received. 
That was a super cool experience of receiving guidance in our lives.

3) We had three friends at church on yesterday! That was super cool! We 
are teaching a Returning Member's daughter and she wants to get baptized. 
We are planning the baptism for about 3 weeks from now. So that is super 
cool! As well the other two that came to church on Sunday want to get 
baptized and we are planning a baptismal service for them in about a month. 
It's been amazing to see how the Lord has blessed us with people to teach 
here in Gadsden.

Well it's been quite the week. We had a lady that preached a sermon for us 
on her doorstep while we were knocking. It was pretty good! There really is 
something that we can learn from everyone we come in contact with.

I hope you all have a great week! You are all in my prayers!

LOVE Y'ALL!!!!

Strength and Honor

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

Elder Noah Featherstone

Email #98 - COMPLETE INSANITY

July 23, 2018

Gadsden, Alabama

HELLOOOOOO FAMILYYYYY!!! I hope your week has been great. It's been pretty crazy here. Starting at the top of the week, last Sunday we had a dinner appointment with a member. At the end of the appointment we shared a brief spiritual thought with her like we always do. Our invitation for her was to pray for a missionary experience in her own life. She agreed to do so but openly told us that she didn't like to pray for missionary experiences because they always turned out bad. But she agreed to do it. On Monday night, we got a text from this member saying, "You're going to freak out! Call me ASAP!" So we put everything down and called her. She proceeded to tell us about what happened. Long story short, she wasn't supposed to work on Tuesday and was a little frustrated that she was called in.  She was praying for a missionary opportunity as well. As she was at work, she had a friend come in and ask her all about the church and told her that she was struggling. Her friend's dad is a pastor at a local church and she felt that her dad was teaching false doctrine. She read in the Bible and it didn't make sense. She asked this member all about the church and their standpoints on the doctrine. She ended up inviting her to have a discussion with the missionaries (Elders Featherstone and Quayle) at her house.! HOW COOL IS THAT?! We had an amazing lesson with her and this member's thoughts on sharing the gospel have completely changed. It was an amazing experience. When we pray for missionary experiences, God will give them to us. Just ask to share the gospel and he'll help you. If each of us did this consistently, I believe that the Lord's work would go forward faster and faster. I looked up some statistics about member missionary work and turns out that 1 in 4 member referrals gets baptized. 25% is INSANE! When with missionaries it's 1 in 100 people they find get baptized. So that was a huge testimony builder to me about sharing our testimonies with others but as well praying for opportunities to share what we believe.

On another note, this week we had Zone Conference and I was able to share my testimony. It was a super cool experience reflecting on all that I have learned as a missionary. I couldn't really get my mind wrapped around what I wanted to say. It was amazing to see how my testimony has grown in 2 years. I really do love this gospel. It's the greatest blessing.

After Zone Conference, we went over to the bike shop and they looked at our bikes. Both of our bikes are out of commission for the time being. So that's kind of terrible. Then we went to the mission office and fixed up two bikes for us to ride. They are a little sketchy but they'll work.  After that we headed on back to Gadsden and we opened up our apartment door to see a surprise! WATER EVERYWHERE! hahahahaha! Our apartment was flooded while we were gone. Something happened to the washer and dryer hook ups and they were leaking all day. The A/C went out on us also . So we didn't have water for a few days.  That was definitely interesting. We had to shower at an empty apartment in the complex. They let us into that apartment so we would use public restrooms for the bathroom, shower at the other apartment, and cook with water that we would carry in pots from the other apartment as well! It's been insane. Hopefully they can get the A/C working quickly too. It's been pretty hot here lately. About 90-95 degrees with 90-100% humidity. We've been wringing out our shirts everyday haha! Reminds me of Brian telling me about his mission.

So it's been quite the week! We've had a good time.  The mission is always a good time though. So I hope you have a great week and can see the Lord's hand in each of your lives. Y'all are the best! I love y'all!

Strength and Honor

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

Elder Noah Featherstone

Email #97 - White Wash #5

July 16, 2018

Gadsden, Alabama

Family! How in the world are you? I guess it's only been a few days...But this week has been a crazy week. So I find out last Monday night that I'm getting transferred and I pack everything up on Tuesday. We show up to Transfers in Birmingham on Wednesday and they say that we will be white washing Gadsden! I'm literally getting transferred about 4 miles to the neighboring ward. ha! The Attalla Branch and the Gadsden Ward all meet in the same building so I saw all the Attalla members and they came to me and shook my hand and said, "You...….. TRAITOR!" Of course they were kidding but it was pretty hysterical. I'm super glad that I'm going to be able to see them still. The Branch is just the greatest but I'm excited to be in Gadsden now.

We've been working our tails off this week. The other day we biked nearly 30 miles and boy my legs were feeling it. I was walking up the stairs and almost fell... haha! But anyways! It's been great! We had two "friends" at church on Sunday and that was great. We also were able to find a family that is interested. How cool is that?! Usually it's just hard to find one person that is interested but we found an entire family! So that's super awesome.

I'm with Elder Quayle. He is from a little farm town outside of Ogden. He is a great guy.  We are going to have a riot. This is my 5th and last time white washing an area. ha! It's pretty crazy that I've done it this many times but I guess I'm going to do it one more time. Most of the week has been trying to find who the previous missionaries were teaching and finding new investigators. It's been pretty hectic but really good. We've had some great help from the ward leadership which is HUGE!

So funny/terrible/miraculous experience that we had this week. We are driving back from Transfers in Birmingham on the way to Gadsden and we have some other elders following us. We were about 10 miles outside of Gadsden and I look back through the rear view mirror and Elder Quayle's bike came loose and is barreling down the freeway... So that's the terrible part. The miraculous part is that the other elders behind us picked up the bike and brought it to us. The other miraculous part is that the bike is fine except for a completely SHREDDED bike seat, dent in the bottom of the frame, and a rideable bent tire. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!  Elder Quayle and I were sprinting on the side of the freeway back to the other Elders who had pulled over. It reminded me of Megan and I running through the underwater highway tunnels in Boston on the way to her show. ha! And the funny part is looking back at it now!

Well that's about all the updates for the week. Sorry I feel like I'm not very good at this whole writing thing but hopefully I'll figure it out in college! ha! I hope you all are doing well! You're in my prayers! Thank you for the love and support you give me. Y'all are the best!

Strength and Honor

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

Elder Noah Featherstone

Email #96 - Transferred....Again....

July 10, 2018

Attalla, Alabama to ????

Family! I hope you have all had a spectacular week! I've been praying for each of you so I hope you have been able to feel the Lord's love this week. Transfer Calls came last night and I found out that my 6 weeks in Attalla are coming to an end. It's pretty sad but I know the Lord needs me somewhere else. They don't tell us where we are getting transferred to, so I'll have to let you know next week about my new area.

So this week has been another great one. We have had a lot of success! We had a friend at church on Sunday and she loved it. As well we have 2 other friends that are on baptismal date. (If you don't know, the word "investigator" has been taken out of Missionary Work. So it's now "people being taught," but I like "friends" better. So it's been a great week. A lot of things have happened. It's been amazing to see how much the Lord has looked over us in these short 6 weeks in Attalla. It's been a testimony building experience seeing the many miracles that have taken place this week alone.

Well thank you all for the love and support you show me constantly! I love y'all! Have a great week! You're in my prayers!

Strength and Honor

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

Elder Noah Featherstone

Email #95 - Following Spiritual Promptings

July 2, 2018
Attalla, Alabama

Hello Family! Happy Monday! I hope all is well! This one has been a pretty good week. I enjoyed it for sure! So I don't have a ton of time today but I did want to update you on a few things. First off! This week we had a service project at a widow's house in the Branch. We trimmed her hedges and all that good stuff! It was BLAZING HOT! I drank 5 water bottles while I was there... We were both drenched from head to toe. It was really weird... That doesn't happen back west... but anyways. We trimmed her hedges and we had a great time. Yesterday at church she got up and shared her testimony about missionary work and how the missionaries are here to help us(the members) fulfill our(their) missionary responsibilities. IT WAS SO COOL! I was just blown away. We really are all missionaries that share this message. Each of you are what you would call "User Reviews." And you can share your user review with those around you.

Another super cool experience that we had was while we were tracting this week. We were out knocking doors and we got to the end of the street and didn't know which way to go. I turned to Elder Vanderhoff and said, "So.... which way should we go?" Long story short, I said, "Well why don't we say a prayer." So we said a prayer in the middle of the street, and we looked both ways and I said, "Okay Elder, which way do we go?" He responded, "I don't feel like I'm getting anything." Meanwhile, I was feeling like we should go a certain way but didn't say anything. So I spoke up and told him which way I was feeling like we should go. We ended up knocking that direction for another hour and didn't get anyone to talk to us. At the second to last door, this lady was outside and I yelled over to her. We got talking to her and originally it was really hard to get her to open up but she told us about a few things that have been going on in her life with her family and everything. She said, "I know that it's not by chance that God sent you this way to talk to me. He guides you and He knows that this is what I needed." Elder Vanderhoff and I were both speechless. I wasn't sure what to say but bear my testimony. So I got thinking about this experience.  Why wasn't it that Elder Vanderhoff got the impression to go a certain direction to knock doors that way? Many people would give different answers to that question, but I think it is because we are all here to learn. I am grateful that He would give me the opportunity to respond to that prompting.

I know that we are lead and guided everyday if we will just take a step back and see what the Lord has in store for us. He has people that he needs us to influence and lift, but if we are distracted, we cannot help them. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I invite each of you to earnestly pray about who you can lift and inspire in your own lives. I promise that as you do, you will be guided and prompted to help someone. It may be a member, or a non-member, but as we strive to minister to those in our surroundings we will be blessed with the Spirit of the Lord in our lives more fully. We are not only called to minister to a select few families, but to all those in our sphere of influence. I know that as we minister to others we will be able to develop Christlike love for those around us and develop Christlike attributes as well.

I love each of you! Have a great week!

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