Email #102 - El Fin

August 20, 2018

Gadsden, Alabama to Home

Family. I can't thank you enough for supporting me as I have been "about my Father's Business." It's been amazing to constantly have my focus on the Lord's sacred work to gather scattered Israel. It's been a tender week. We've been able to see many blessings and miracles. I've loved every minute of it.

I want to share two quick experience from this week.  So first off, as we were knocking doors, this man across the apartment complex had watched us get rejected by a few people. All the sudden we heard, "I'LL LISTEN TO YA!" I turned around and saw this guy waaayyyy over there waving at us. He was probably 100 yards away. We started walking over there. At first I was really skeptical of what was going to happen, but he was very sincere and wanted to know more about us. We taught him the Restoration and he wanted to learn more. It was a really cool experience to see how God puts us in people's paths so we can help them. If we would not have been knocking doors, he wouldn't have yelled over to us. He said that he had been wanting to know more about the "Mormon's" and what they believe so it was perfect. It was super super funny how it happened but he is reading the Book of Mormon now. So that's one miracle we saw this week.

This week as well, we met with a man named Fred. It's been super awesome to teach him because he is so sincere. We taught about Prayer and how God wants to hear from us. He felt that God wanted to hear from everyone else but him. We talked a little bit about the specific ways God has shown his love to him in his life. He named a few major blessings and we talked about the small ones in his life. It was very cool. At the end of the lesson, we invited him to kneel by his bedside before he goes to sleep and pray. He said he would. Later we followed up with him and he said that he felt something different while he prayed. We then testified that it was the spirit that he was feeling.

I'm so grateful for the experiences that I've had here in Alabama. I will never forget these special people here and the influences they have had on me. I have learned so much from them. This place is another home for me. I will miss it a lot. As I have been reflecting on my mission, I have come to ways that my testimony in the gospel has grown. I know that this is His sacred church. We are literal spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He suffered for our sins that we might have eternal life. I struggle putting all my thoughts and feelings into words. So I guess if I were to say anything it would be that, the gospel is true! It all is. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have had to represent the Savior for these two years. I have done my best to put everything into His work and I am so grateful for his divine love.

This is a very tender experience to write my last email. I feel as Ammon boasting in the Lord for the things that I have been able to do here for Him. This is His work. I will boast in Him.

One last thought. As I have been with the people here in Alabama. I've come to see the importance of a few things.

1)Daily Scripture Study

2)Pray Often

3)Weekly Church Attendance

4)Weekly Family Home Evening

These are a few things that i would invite all of us to do. These things have changed people here and have kept them on the covenant path. These things move us toward becoming unshaken in our faith. That is what we are here to do. To become unshaken in the things we believe and in our reliance on the Lord. I love you all and I know that God loves each of us. This is Jesus Christ's Church. It is restored. God has a plan for us, and we are His Children.

I love you all. Have a great few days and I'll see you soon.

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

Email #101 - One of the Greats

August 13, 2018

Gadsden, Alabama

Family! This week was one of those weeks that when I look back on my mission, I'm going to remember what happened this week. I hope each of yours has been this incredible.

On Friday we had a lesson with Chad and Nicole and we were planning on teaching the Word of Wisdom. As we got there and chatted for a minute, Chad speaks up and says, "Okay so you've got to explain this health code that y'all have that keeps you all healthy and happy." We started getting into the lesson and he told us about some problems that he has had with a certain part of the Word of Wisdom. He said, "This is serious to me. I want to quit. I just need your help." So I got this impression to talk about Priesthood blessings with them. As we did so, he mentioned that he would like one. As we finished with the blessing. He asked us about fasting. He said, "I've heard about people fasting. Would that be something that would help?" Elder Quayle went on and explained what fasting is and how it helps. He quickly responded after, "I'm going to start fasting right now for the next 24 hours." I jumped in real quick and asked, "Can we join you?" He kind of looked up at me with this look like, "You're going to do that to help me?" He replied, "That'd be great!" So we fasted on Saturday with him, and when we stopped by on Saturday evening to see how it was, Nicole says, "Guys! He has been so happy and not irritated at all! It's been great!" Chad spoke up saying, "I haven't had a lick of anything!" It reminded me of Megan, "I had a lemonhead and a lick of an atomic fire ball!" haha!

So Sunday morning rolls around, and we got a text from them saying that Nicole is in rough shape. We offered to come give her a blessing and she jumped at it. We went by and gave her a blessing and as Chad was walking to the door, he said, "Guys! I haven't had any! I've gone two days without it!" He just seemed so chipper! IT WAS SO COOL! He said, "I feel like I've got this little high from not using it!" They are just the greatest! I could honestly see them being some of the most solid members EVER! I'm so excited for them.

Jaylyn is going to be getting baptized on the 25th which is great! She is anxiously awaiting the day! Her Dad is planning on baptizing her still so that is good. We are going to have her baptismal interview this week so that will be exciting as well.

Joanne and Wallace are doing great as well! We are going to see them tomorrow and teach the Word of Wisdom. So please keep them all in your prayers!

Another experience that happened this week was while we were knocking doors! Never in my mission have I had the first door answer and listen to our message. Usually it's the last door right? Like Fourth Floor, Last Door?  Well this week the Lord really blessed us. We had about 20 minutes and we decided to knock a few doors around. As we got to the first door, he opened up and we taught him the Restoration and he committed to read the Book of Mormon! I thought that was so cool! It was an answer to prayer as well. Beforehand we asked that we would be able to teach one person in the next 20 minutes and the Lord definitely delivered.

I hope you all are doing SPECTACULAR! Have a stellar week and remember! ROLL TIDE! and Um... Les Quiero!

Strength and Honor

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

Elder Noah Featherstone

Email #100 - A Glimpse of Divine Design

August 6, 2018

Gadsden, Alabama

Family! What a week it has been! I have absolutely loved hearing about the many miracles that have happened in all of our lives! It truly is amazing to see how the Lord looks after us. I continue to be amazed every single day as a missionary at the ways that the Lord blesses us as we do his work.

As I look back at the week, I feel like the kid on Incredibles, "THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!" I want to give you a few updates on our friends that we are teaching. So first up, Jaylyn! She is incredible! I'm not sure if I have talked about her a whole lot, but she is the daughter of a returning member. We've struggled to help her get baptized because her father doesn't think that she is ready to make that kind of a commitment. But as we have continued teaching her, last week we talked about baptism and he said, "Well I think she is finally ready! I want her to get baptized!" We both just sat back and just were amazed. The Lord works on his children for sure. Then he said, "I was thinking like 2 or 3 weeks? What do y'all think?" So we are planning a baptism for August 25th. SUPER COOL! I'm super excited for her!

We are also teaching two AMAZING couples!  Wallace and Joanne, and Chad and Nicole! Wallace and Joanne came to church last week and everyone was incredibly friendly with them and they just loved it! It was so cool. They have a long history with the church but I do know that their hearts are being softened. We are planning for them in September to be baptized.

Chad and Nicole are doing great! They were tracted into about 2 months ago and we talked with them last week about baptism and the priesthood. They were just so full of intent and they really want to know. It is so darn cool! As we finished up visiting, Chad spoke up, "I just have one more question... Do the Mormon's have some sort of health code or something? I've always wanted to know that."  We told him that we would talk about it on Monday with him. So tonight we are going to teach them the Word of Wisdom and are super excited. They are super awesome! We are trying to figure out a day as well when we can go biking with Chad because he loves to bike for exercise. So we'll do that one morning with him this week.

Everything is going super super great here in Gadsden! We are just enjoying life as missionaries. The last few days Elder Quayle and I have skipped dinner because we just wanted to keep working. I didn't ever think I would do that but it was great! I truly love being a representative of Jesus Christ. There is nothing like it and knowing that I only have a few weeks makes me sad, but I know that we are all missionaries and can all share the gospel. I love you all and I hope you all have a FANTASTIC week!

Strength and Honor

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

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