"Increase Our Faith" Luke 17:5-10

Hello Family!

Thank you for the cute box! It is very surprising but for the last couple of weeks, I haven't needed any hand warmers, the weather has been crazy warm for January! But I am sure there will still be a lot of cold days ahead so THANK YOU for those! and also for the yummy treats!!

This last week was a crazy one! I got my new missionary on Wednesday! She is Sister Montoya and she is from Arkansas but she speaks Spanish! That was a relief for me because I thought that we would have to teach her spanish. Then I also have Sister Banka, from Michagan. She is fun and full of energy, and we kind of look related :) After getting my "trio", we headed over to a meeting for zone leaders, district leaders, and Sister Training leaders. We lost 2 STLs and he only replaced them with me :P There is just a little bit of pressure there, hehe :) 

We all work together really well and we have a lot of fun. But we also work hard, which sometimes doesn't happen in trios, you have too much fun that you aren't working hard each day. We had a great week last week and we are having a baptism this Saturday!! YAY! Mirna, Felipe, and Angel are all getting baptized. Mirna and felipe are AWESOME! She wants to go teaching with us, and she isn't even a member! She is so awesome.

We are teaching Kayla, 13, and we picked up Yaretzi, who is 9. She reminds me so much of Lydia, I feel like I am teaching Lydia when I am teaching her. She was so happy when her less-active mom gave us permission to teach and baptize her. She was jumping up and down, saying "Thank you, thank you!" She is super cute :) My trainee invited her to baptized and she said, "yes! I want to do it!" It was a great experience for my trainee, to see that there are people out there who are ready. I wish all people were like little kids, that they could recognize the truth and accept the invitation to follow the Savior without hesitation. 

Sunday, we had Stake Conference and we had a General Authority, Elder Katcher? He was very good and our stake president will be a general authority some day. He is amazing! You just feel the LOVE radiate from him. I want to be like that, when I serve other missionaries, I want them to feel the love that I have for them. 

Yesterday, I had Mission Leadership Council. I was scared to death. That is the meeting with President and Sister Moffat and the Assistants, the Zone Leaders, and the Sister Training Leaders. I thought that we would just be yelled at for everything that the mission was doing wrong, but it was the complete opposite. We started with what we need to improve on in the mission and how we can solve it and what our plan is. I have learned a lot about planning in the mission. It does NO good to find the problem and find a solution WITHOUT a plan to reach the goal. Concern, Solution, Plan, When. This is what we did for a long time! And by the end, we had a very specific plan on how to help the missionaries. Then we set goals on WHEN we will do our plans. I felt like we accomplished SO much by the first half of the meeting. After lunch, we went through the four zones and how we can help them. WE are very accountable here in the leadership, but it is a principle that NEVER goes away. It is an eternal principle. I stood up at the front of the room to report how many I have on date and my goal for next month. After I wrote down my goals, President asked me, "Sister Warren, how do you do it? You have 3 baptisms this weekend and you have more on date. What are you doing differently?"

I didn't know what to say really, all I could say is that I look for families and that I pray to find them and that I work hard each day to find them. I just want to love these people and help them be baptized. And now as a leader, I want to help my sisters to baptize. That is the thing that keeps you going through the hard times, the people that you can help to the waters of baptism. 

Something that I learned from President Moffat was how I can have more faith. Sister Jones asked that in the meeting at the end when President teaches us doctrine. She asked how she can increase her faith. Then President took us to Luke 17: 5- 10.

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

 6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

 7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

 8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

 9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow (think) not.

 10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

It is interesting how the Lord teaches this to his apostles. How the servant(us) and the master(Christ) and that the Lord commands us to continue to serve him, even we have just been working hard all day in the "field", we come home and want to relax but we sit down and plan for tomorrow, always doing more and more for Him. As President said, "To increase our faith, we serve Him, and then we serve Him some more, and then we serve Him again!" 

Our service never ends! But the Lord will hold us up and work with us, and qualify us for this work that we are doing. As it says in Jacob,

 

72 And it came to pass that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them; and they did obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things.

When I walked out of that meeting, I didn't feel heavy with all of the responsibility that has now been placed on my shoulders, but I felt uplifted, I knew that President Moffat LOVES his missionaries, and that the Lord is INVOLVED in this work, this is His work so why wouldn't he be involved?

Just know that I love you all and miss you, but know that I am working hard and doing everything to make this the best last 6 months of my mission :) I hope that everyone is doing ok. I got emails from Sister Merrill and Megan, with tips for me. Thanks!!

I love you all! I love this work that I am doing! I don't want it to end!

SLY!

Hermana Warren