Grace is Sufficient : The one where we got contacted by babies

A recurring theme this week has been babies contacting us. We're busy, or it seems like a bad moment, or we're just distracted, and these kids are like "Yo! Mom needs to know about eternal families! I remember you people, I know what your job is, get over here!"

One of the latest babies tapped my back and grabbed my dress a few times on the bus to play peek-a-boo before I got the hint (thanks, kid) and her mom said "I'm so sorry I don't know why she's doing this!" (It was adorable!) And we figured out her mom is from Peru (there's a pretty big franco-peruvian community. Who knew?) and she didn't speak, like... any French or English, but we spoke enough spanish to talk a little before our stop, and invited her to visit the Visitor's Center where the sisters speak fluent Spanish. Soeur Sedrick was talking to her older kids on the other side of the bus who took a Book of Mormon (in French, but hey) and they thought seeing Sister Missionaries was pretty cool.

The last week hasn't been stunningly productive as far as movement goes because of my badly behaved leg but I finally got sick of waiting with my leg wrapped and up so we braved the French medical system and figured out that I have a little bitty torn muscle in my left leg. Now my leg is still up, but we have a course of action to get it better! I'm not supposed to really use it for a few days (this does not work well as a visitors center sister) but for p-day my companion has me on loving lockdown so I won't use it. The doctor also wants me to get tennis shoes and couldn't figure out why we walk so much in nice shoes... He's got me there. Cobblestones/Hobblestones, same thing, right?

I'm also supposed to wear compression stockings for two weeks and possibly longer, but turns out they're a lot more stylish and comfortable in France and kind of a go-to treatment so all in all, not half bad. My legs will never see the sun again. The other Soeurs get some entertainment watching me put them on in the morning.

Blessings have come from it with ward members talking to us a lot more because "what did you do to your leg??" and doing a lot of phone calls and texting to improve my French and invite people to this AWESOME BYU event we're having soon. Whatever pride I've tried to hold onto is lost in the form of compression socks and French grammar. We've also met some amazing people on trajet, calls and phone calls, and even at the doctors!

I love the talk from conference called "Take the Holy spirit as your guide." The part that says "what can I do?" especially! We have a new member that people can be confused with because she's very blunt, but one of her amazing gifts is to find the elephant in the room, shine a spotlight on it, and say "hey does this belong to anyone???" which can be very very needed sometimes. We're grateful for her and the love she shares. She shares it in her own way and we need her, right now, where she is, and my gosh do we love her.

Song reccomendations of the week:

Where Can I Turn for Peace? -The Lower Lights

The Bonner Family's Be One performance, especially the "I am a child of God" part.

CHALLENGE: Be still? Read "Feel Disconnected? Try Slowing Down." From the July 2018 Liahona. Get a friend or someone you love, go to a park or a hill or a hike or your backyard or something, a cup of herbal tea or lemonade is nice, bring your paper scriptures, and pray to be able to "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) To turn this into a missionary opportunity, invite someone along to just relax and be still too for a minute.

This is hard as a missionary because we are always moving and have 50 things to do, but we've had to practice this the last week. It's been a weird kind of blessing. We're studying more effectively, keeping in contact with our amis and ward members who might just need a scripture now and then, and learning. The Lord has plans for everyone, sometimes it takes us a minute to figure it out.

So, have fun, be safe, make good choices, read your scriptures, I love you all, talk to you next week!!

-Soeur Alyssa Amott