Email #69 - The Missionaries will Find You!

January 2, 2018
Birmingham, Alabama

Well y'all! It's been quite the year so far don't ya think?? ha! It's honestly been great! It was a blast to talk to y'all on Christmas! I really loved it! It was great! I hope everything went well on Christmas day and you were all able to have a great time. This week has been pretty hectic if I'd say so... So I don't have a ton of time today but I do want to share a story or two with you!

So First off, we were out tracting earlier this week and we talked to a guy on the street named Dante. He said we could come back and see him later in the week and we said Okay great! We'll see you then! So we come back and nothing.... So we were just like, "Oh those darn rascals." So fast forwarding to last night. We were out knocking on doors as a little hurrah for the new year! As we are knocking, Dante opens up this random door... I said, "Dante... I thought you lived over there?!" Turns out the guy gave us the wrong address to mess with us. But NOPE! You can't fool the missionaries. They'll always find you. It made me laugh so hard! He ended up letting us come in and we had a great talk with him. So we are going back tomorrow to go teach him English, and as well to teach him the Restoration. So that'll be fun;) Don't try and hide this time...

As well another cool thing happened. While we were out knocking doors last night as well, not much came from it other than "refinding" Dante. So as our appointment at 8 o'clock fell through, I said," Elder let's go see a former investigator down the street." So we went over there and they welcomed us on in and we were able to have a great talk with them. Their names are Edmundo, and Kelvin. They are cousins and they are just studs! They have been coming to English Class and it's been a riot! So we decided we should try and teach them again. Last night, we read the Introduction of the Book of Mormon with them and they both were just soaking everything in. It was amazing. 

That all happened in one night. Every night this week has been like that. We've just seen miracle after miracle and it's been amazing. I know that our Loving Father in Heaven is looking after us and he wants the best for us. I love you all! Have a great week!

Strength and Honor

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

-Elder Noah Featherstone

 The frozen falls... It's been like 15 degrees everyday lately... plus 100% humidity

Up close and personal

Email #68 - Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2017

Birmingham, Alabama

Family! I'm just going to keep this one short because we'll be chatting! But it's really been amazing to be a missionary at this time of the year! I've really enjoyed it! We've been doing a lot of fun stuff. This week we did a lot of store contacting at the mall. We had a lot of good things come from it.

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas! I love you all! I'm thankful that this time of year celebrating our Savior's birth brings us together and helps us recognize that He loves us. Christ lives! That is our message to the world. His church has been restored and we have the fullness of His gospel again.

Love you all! Merry Christmas!

Elder Noah Featherstone

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!