Happy New Year from Chicago!

Hello!!!

Well it is really good to hear from you; sorry I wasn't able to write you back until now! It has been a little bit cold... so we have had to take precautions and the town was shut down yesterday due to "extreme cold temperatures".   I think it got down to -45 with wind chill. It's been an exciting time for us since the holidays have finally ended.  You may be surprised by hearing that from me, but when you are a missionary the Holidays take a toll on your teaching numbers and such. It was so fun and such a privilege to be a missionary this time of the year, and I get to do it again! Hopefully my companion next year can live up to Sis. McClimans; we are too much fun sometimes.

So we finally got to teach our two investigators we have last week! It snowed all of new Year’s eve and New Year’s Day and so we got about two ft. of snow! It was so crazy, and so fun. While we were headed to an appointment there was not parking.  Since we were already running a little late because we were headed back from a meeting and the snow was wretched, we tried to park in this vacant parking lot that, well... wasn't plowed.. ever, so there was about a foot of snow. When we pulled in there I was thinking that this may not be a good idea, but you know... sometimes when time is pressuring you just don't care. Haha so we got stuck, and since I wasn't driving I had to push the car out... first off I was freezing, second... my boots aren't made for hiking in the mountains so I was slipping all around. Haha don't worry I wasn't mad, but we got out of there luckily. Some man with a plow on the front of his truck helped us out. And we got to the lesson! It went wonderful and then we were able to set up another time to meet with her! The Lord is merciful that is all I can say, and I think we learned from out mistake :)

We also got to teach our other investigator who is really close to baptism! She is way awesome and we are so privileged to be working with her! So that was just a privilege to be able to do that. We watched the movie, finding Faith in Christ. Which is so good! I think it delivers a perfect message about the healing that Christ did while He lived here on the earth. He healed and taught so many. Everything is possible through Faith. I know that pure faith will bring to pass great miracles. This will open doors you may have never thought possible. There is an absolute true power to Faith. God’s whole plan is about Faith in Christ. It is the First principle! This movie shows Christ healing these people at the time, but in all reality we need to be healed too, whether it’s physically or spiritually, and we can be with the use of the Atonement. Christ still continues the work He performed while he was on the earth, he still heals us, but it is by faith in his Atonement that we will become healed. One of my favored lines Christ so often says is, "Go forth thy faith hath made thee whole." So faith, it all starts with hope Ether 12:4
"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with ^asurety ^bhope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which ^chope cometh of ^dfaith, maketh an ^eanchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in ^fgood works, being led to ^gglorify God."

So if your faith is small, just remember to have that hope, a surety of hope and it will come, because God works by order and what he tells us is the truth. I love this gospel, and I love this church. I am so thankful for all that it was done for me. And I am so thankful for my family, and the examples that they have been for me. I know with all my heart that this is His church, The Church of Jesus Christ. It is not the Church of Man. It is not the church of Joseph Smith. It is not the Church of Thomas S. Monson. It is the Church of Jesus Christ.

I love you, and miss you. I wish the best for you this upcoming week and I can't wait to talk to you later!

Love, Sister Tincher :)