Couple of Changes

Hello Guys!!! 

It's interesting that change is something we all don't like, but is something we need. 

Being here really has opened my eyes change, there is always change, and once we get comfortable things change again!!!! Haha but just like the atonement, and repentance we need to change. It's part of the plan. 

This week has had a couple of changes. A couple of the wonderful people we have been working with have decided to stop meeting with us, or make choices that had caused some set backs. But Things are good here, there is always a reason for change, a good reason! 

We haven't been able to meet with Tammy lately. She has Been having some stress lately. We had a lesson scheduled with her and we were going to have President come with us, well she decided that she wasn't going to come down to the common area. We were pretty shocked, we had The President with us! My anxiety level rose a titch. President just turned and said well where else can we go! Oh snap... We had to think of something on the spot. 

      We ended up going to Melissa's she is an investigator who has many, many questions about the book if Mormon, it was funny as we met with her she was just honored to have him there. But Pres. Woodbury is so humble I think it's really cool to have him around. And he was a big help in the lesson. But he really just gave come of them same answers to her that we gave to Melissa the week before, (because she asks the same questions). 

We met with her Saturday also and it was a bible study with a couple of her friends. Oh .my .goodness. It's so hard to read when like every bible says something different haha. It's interesting when no matter how hard you try to testify and bring the spirit in, if the Person you are talking isn't really open to hearing or learning then they won't! Hahaha kind of obvious but sad at the same time. It's so true about agency and us having the power to choose to accept. It's so powerful to see the happiness that comes when people choose to accept. 

We got to teach Denisa she week. She is getting ready to move to Romania! But we don't think she every really understood the point of the restoration, because she has been going to this other church and when we ask about church she says, "I am going with my parent in laws!" Haha. So this week we wanted to do something that would help her see a little most clearly. We showed her a video!! It's called "the church at a glance" it shows the family, temples, helping hands, tithing, people from all over the world. And she loved it! Her husband died about three months ago and she really loved when they talked about temples. 

Ah!!! It was so cool! She really wants to get baptized and sealed to her husband, as we were talking about it she was like "I feel peace as we talk about this" we were able to testify to her that that peace she was feeling, was the Holy Ghost telling her that this is true. 

We then went of the maps and looked for the nearest temple and meeting house near her in Romania. She was so excited, just loving life. 

Something so cool was she was like, "You need more of you guys out there!" Because the church is really small in Romania. It was a great experience to see that when we are touched by the spirit we truly want more people to know about it. 

Something is think I learned this week, was the power we are given when we choose to work, be happy and choosing the right. It's really the our decision what path we will be on, but we can't decide the destination where we will end up. No matter what kind of changes we may experience in life, when we choose the right. We won't be lead astray. 

I am so thankful for the gospel, the people I have met here and the experiences I have been given to learn more about my Father in Heaven. 

Guys I love you so much, thank you for everything. 

I hope you have a good week!! 

Love, Sister. Tincher

pretty awesome week

Hello guys!!! 

The weather here was great this past week not too cold and not too hot. Perfect. Just like the lessons we had planned and everything else. 

We have been able to visit with Tammy pretty often this week and it was going good. We think she is under a lot of stress concerning her trying to stop smoking, her living conditions, and then trying to get everything that we are teaching her. She is so awesome and ready to go and do. But she asked to move the baptism until she finds a new place. She says about three weeks. We are hoping it happens a little sooner though! 

It was pretty funny about thirty minutes before her appointment we were contacting on the streets and we turn the corner and we saw her! .... Haha with a big 44 oz of ice coffee. Hahaha oh my my my there is so many Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts everywhere, literally on every block. Like.... I am not over exaggerating. 

So we talked to her a little about that, I think that may be so fetching hard for her to break the habit  too, but with her turning to The Lord for strength like she does, I know it will be possible. 

We got to meet with a less active that found us about two weeks ago! He is a guy so we had to have someone there with us, and when we were trying to find someone to come with us to the lesson everyone we called couldn't, or they we felt like it wouldn't be right or they didn't reply in time. As we were discussing who we should take we got a text from a less active- Pete, who recently has started coming back. (He is so awesome!!). 

Well we had the idea of asking Pete to come and invite a friend of his friend. We weren't too sure so we kept looking around. Finally we decided to just go ahead and ask him. Well we get a text back after we asked him and he is like, " sure, is it okay if I bring Jason?" PERFECT!!!! Jason is a less active who started coming back to church about a month ago as well! I love how The Lord is merciful, because I remember having this exact thought of Pete needing to meet this guy as we were talking, but completely forgot about it until AFTER we were in the lesson. The lesson went so so good. They all exchanged numbers afterwards, set up another appointment and made plans to hang out later..... I was stunned, still am. So it just is proof to me that The Lord is leading this work. 

They all could relate on a spiritual level and were all at different levels of belief and it was so perfect and so cool! 

It was a pretty awesome week, full of surprises and a who bunch of other stuff. I know that our Father in Heaven is real and that he is there. I know that if we are looking for truth, we can just ask, and ask in faith and sincerity. Truth is constant and God is the spirit of all truth. 

I love you guys! and hope you have a great week!! 

Love, sis. Tincher 

I am blessed.

Chicago, is such a beautiful city. The water from Lake Michigan and
the skyline combined is the perfect combination for a sister like me.
Every day is a day to go out and do my best. Some mornings may be a
little rough around the edges but the day smooths them out and The
Lord and is mercy is so visible in the little things of everyday life.
All I can say is I am blessed. Ask me how I am doing, and I will
simply reply, "I am blessed". Blessed to be here, alive, and a servant
for The Lord, Jesus Christ.

This week we have had many great things happen where we see people
humbly trying to follow and find or get back on the path to find their
Savior.
We went to an appointment with an investigator, Tammy. She is on date
for the next couple weeks and is really hitting the ground running! We
came to her house and she had two friends there, both were less active
who are not on our records and want to come back to church. We taught
them about the Book of Mormon and every one of them had a testimony of
the power received from the Book of Mormon, varying from Joseph smith
is a prophet to the strength the spirit gives them of the knowledge of
the savior. It was powerful. All three of them were able to make it to
church! And in relief society we had time at the end of the lesson to
bare testimonies. The two ladies in the group went up and bore theirs!
I was stunned, but felt so blessed to know them.

We had the opportunity to teach another lady, Melissa. We have been
doing bible studies with her and throw in some great stuff from the
Book of Mormon at sometimes in the lesson. Well this time we decided
to teach the Restoration. Melissa has many concerns about the book of
Mormon and Joseph Smith so we thought it would be best to get this in
here because the Restoration is the best way to answer these
questions! Well we get there and her friend, Reggie, who we have read
about in the teaching records was there..... Oh snap Lets just say I
was a little stressed. Well we are teaching and it's going great all
of a sudden he speaks up, turns out he is a minister... If you know
what this means then, yeah, he didn't stop talking a loooong time, ban
out things that didn't really pertain to the restoration. We were
finally able to jump in and get back on topic. As we had him read the
First vision of Joseph smith. The spirit came and we all felt it.
Melissa is willing to read and pray about it, she really wants to find
out if it's true, Reggie... Well he believes he is already saved and
doesn't need anything or anyone else. The blessing of the Book of
Mormon and implementing what you learn are indescribable! I wish I
could because then more people would straight up do what hey needed
to, to find if it was true!

Another thing that was cool is we are working with a less active, she
is really just less active because she has MS and is home bound. We
are working on getting her to the temple!! But we have a couple
obstacles in the way. Well we got this call where she says, "guess
what I got today.... an aide who is lds!" Oh my we just about fell
out! Say whaaaat! Haha really she is being taught by the elders, and
is on date for August!! But since she works on Sundays she can't come
to church, but now she can because she can bring Theresa!!! This is
the coolest thing! The Lord is preparing both of them for sacred
ordinances they will be able to perform in the next few weeks or
months! We got to meeting with them Sunday and it was a blast. I am
excited for this.

This week was full of little miracles, way cool things. I love this
calling and I love what I do.
I hope that you all have a good week, I love so much and you are in my
prayers. I know that this is Christ's church restoration back on the
earth in the fullness, and it is through the Book of Mormon and Holy
Bible that I have come to a knowledge of this truth.

Have a good week!!! Talk to you the next one!
Keep on keepin on :)
Love, Sister. Tincher

Octopus and squid for dinner.  Smells like fish, tastes like chicken.  :)

Everything happens for a reason

Hello family and friends!!! 

Whoa this week. Was. Grand. 

I think I say that every week. I may need to figure out some new starters. But who has time for that. 

So we got to meet with some wonderful investigators. One of whom is named Tammy. She is a SWEETHEART, so willing, so driven and so in tune with the will of The Lord. I am humbled by her example to do good. We taught her a couple times this week, and she has really been trying hard to cut her habit of smoking, she told us every time she get a nudge to do it she gets really frustrated and wants to start, but as she remembers to pray and ask for strength the temptation leads, and then she reads the Book of Mormon to distract and calm her down. I know that this is the formula we can all do as we are trying to avoid temptations, and are trying to reach our potential as disciples of Christ. 

We had two investigators at church on Sunday!! Whoo hoo!! It was really great, Tammy requested a priesthood blessing to receive strength, so powerful. She. is .elect. That's all I am going to say. We then studied about the Sabbath day and Shana our other investigator texted us later that night requesting to learn more about honoring the Sabbath. Who knew being a missionary would be so rewarding. 

So last night something pretty cool happened. We headed out after a dinner appointment and to the city where we were going to visit some less actives. When we all of a sudden had to head back to our apartment to grab something we forget. I was pretty upset. We had a good evening planned, and I didn't want to head pall the way back, but we needed to. So we finally get the things we needed and head out the door to finish our day, but we only had time to really stop by and get wifi to sync our iPads. The whole time I am just a little put off, but I am thinking everything happens for a reason, something is going to happen. Well as we are sitting waiting for things to download this guy comes up and says, "is there a church around here!" We are like, um what!? Turns out he is a member, but hadn't been to church in years. He wasn't even on the ward list! He was willing to meet with us, so we set up an appointment and gave him the info about church it was really cool! So really, everything happens for a reason.

So this week was full of spiritually uplifting and motivation experiences. Lovin life, the mission is great, hard work, but the kind of work you say to yourself it's worth it. 

I guess for my spiritual thought;) for today is... "mortal life, glorious as it is, was never the ultimate objective of God’s plan. Life and death here on planet Earth were merely means to an end--not the end for which we were sent." Russel M. Nelson

Life here on earth is a blessing we can experience. It is something to cherish and do something with, but it's really just an experience we need to take with us after this. Just like a trial is in this life. We are give a trial to learn from to make the future better for us because we learn how to react better. The same goes for this life and it's role in helping us for more than this.

I love you all and I hope you have a really good week! 

God Bless you! 

Love, Sister Tincher 

Me saying hi

"Where'd you guys learn this?"

Hello family and friends! 

So this week, Hm... Let me scan over what happened. It was pretty good. Our recent convert who I told you about getting baptized last week has hit some bumps in the road, just like a lot of us may struggle with after receiving some divine answer of some sort. There will always be something thrown in our path that is trying to make us trip and fall, or mess up. But our choice to look ahead and prepare to see what's coming and step over, to the side or on it to over come what has been thrown in our way. The coolest thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ is our binoculars to see what may lay ahead and prepare ourselves for what's coming. It's all good with The Lord on our side! 

This week we also got to meet with a lady that we recently contacted, she was very sweet. As we taught her the restoration the spirit was strong and she really was able to connect the dots of the importance of the priesthood authority and modern day prophets. When we extended the baptismal commitment she looked at us with the biggest smile, and said "Oh really? I am so flattered you would ask me!" Haha. It's The Lord offering this! Offering blessing and happiness she felt as we taught. 

 The next time we met with her we asked if she read the Book of Mormon we gave her, she said a little and told us she read a verse in the Book of Mormon that spoke of how we will see our loved ones after this life. Sis. Black and I were stunned, this was so cool! She told us in the lesson prior about her sister being shot when she was 14 and how that really put her into depression and still gives her such a hard time, as well as her father who died a couple years ago. So for her to open up to that particular verse of scripture was just a testimony to me that the Book of Mormon does answer question of the soul, name that God is very aware of all of our needs. 

At the end of the lesson, she turned to us and said, "where'd did you guys learn this!?" Haha I love it. 

So this week was wonderful. We were able to meet lots of good people, share the world from one side of Chicago to the other! We also got to eat on someone's roof top which was so gorgeous and we ended right before a huge black cloud started to roll in! 

I hope y'all have a wonderful week! And hopefully will get to hear from you soon! 

Love you! 

Love Sister Tincher

This is where we are emailing today! The Chicago library. Does it look
familiar dad?