This was one of the craziest weeks of my entire mission...
Loved ones, boy do I have a story for you. So it all started Tuesday morning. Sister Teng and I both woke up not feeling well. I just had a headache and it went away pretty quickly, but Sister Teng had some serious stomach pain and so we stayed in the flat for the morning. About mid day however she started to get really sick. To the point where she was throwing up every 15ish minutes, and also not talking at all because her pain level was so high. I called the GP (local doctor) to ask about going to the hospital, but she said the waiting time would be about 3-4 hours, so we just waited.This was a very long 2 hours... but there was nothing else that I could do except for be moral support, and pray really hard! I felt a lot of emotional, and physical strength from something beyond me this entire day. I felt the Saviour's love both for me, and for her as she suffered this severe pain, and I was basically helpless to help. :/ Eventually I was able to figure everything out so that a senior couple was able to come pick us up and take us to a GP (local doctor) appointment. The senior couple brought some Elders to give her a blessing, and afterwards they carried her down to the car. Then we drove all the way to the appointment, vomit bucket and all. When we got there Sister Teng was really not doing well... poor girl! She was just so weak, and had lost so much fluid that I was really worried she was getting dehydrated. The doctor came up to see her in the waiting room right away, and instead of treat her there she told us that she was going to call an ambulance immediately. Within 5 minutes an ambulance showed up and two paramedics came out to carry my companion. Looking back, it's pretty cool that I got to ride in a London ambulance, but at the time I was extremely worried about Sister Teng so I didn't pay much attention. The paramedics strapped my companion in, gave her some pain killers, and we were off to the emergency room. Now, you'd think that if you came to the hospital in an ambulance you'd be on the top of the priority list, but no. :( We sat in the waiting room for a good 1.5 hours before we were taken back. Sister Teng was sitting in a wheelchair holding my hand, I was holding a nasty throw up bowl, and we could hear everything going on around us! I could hear a man screaming in pain a few doors down, there were a few ladies who had gotten in a bike crash sitting by us, and we kept seeing old people with oxygen masks come in through the doors on stretchers. It was just like a movie, I swear!! Finally they called us back, and we got our own little room. It was about 7 pm by then. After lots of needles, morphine & anti-sick medicine, blood tests, lots of vomit, an IV for dehydration, 4 different nurses, and a ex-ray they had no idea what was wrong... President and Sister Stevens showed up around 10 so I wasn't alone anymore, but the whole ordeal was pretty intense. Lots of waiting too... Surprisingly I was able to stay calm through the whole thing though. Again, looking back that was a HUGE blessing! Anyways, by 12:30 there were still no answers, and so the doctor told us she would have to stay at the hospital over night. They took us all upstairs and then we had to leave. It was really difficult leaving her in a strange hospital bed in the middle of the night with her still being in pain, but she was absolutely exhausted and needed to stay! The doctor told us she would be taken care of, and so we left. President and Sister Stevens dropped me off at my flat at 2 in the morning, and I had to sleep in my room all alone. I think I had a lot of adrenaline as well because I couldn't fall asleep forever... It felt like I just closed my eyes when the sun came up, and it was time to get up. Long story short she had to stay another night in the hospital, but the next day we went again to bring her home. They weren't able to figure out what was wrong, but she was feeling 100 times better after 2 days in the hospital being pumped with fluid, and resting a ton.
So, that's my story... she's great now! :) As happy as ever, with a bit of a sore stomach the first day back, but oh my goodness it was intense! I can't even begin to explain how much I felt the atonement through this whole experience. Most of my life the atonement has just been an abstract concept that I didn't completely understand. I knew that I had a Saviour, and I knew that the atonement was real, but I just hadn't felt it much in my own life. Well, I guess I just didn't apply it. Or recognize it for what it was. On my mission however, I've felt the atonement strengthen me personally, and I've felt my Saviours love for me as an individual! It's an incredible thing, and honestly very hard to describe in words, but it's real. I love Jesus, and I love my companion! What an experience for the books. Wow.
The rest of the week was average in comparison, but I'll share one cool experience that happened on Sunday evening. So, for those of you that didn't watch the General Women's Conference this story might not make complete sense... but if it doesn't just go read Elder Uchtdorf's talk. :) In the evening we went to go track down a former investigator of mine from over a year ago. I've felt like we needed to go visit this family for a while now, but things kept getting in the way of us going there. It was dark by the time we got to their street, and I realized that I didn't remember their flat number! We said a quick prayer that we would be able to find them and then we started walking. I didn't recognize anything in the dark. Finally we decided that we needed to start knocking on doors that looked familiar to me. But this was a long street, and it was getting late. After about 15 doors with no luck, we were getting pretty discouraged. We decided to knock on one more door and then call it a night. Well, guess what? We found the family! "Fourth floor, last door." moment.
VC staff photo. "Family photo"
I love this work, I love London, and I really love the Lord! I hope you all have a great week family and friends. Enjoy this beautiful Autumn, and all the colours that come with it! Also, sorry this email is massive... if you made it though the whole thing I'm amazed!
Much Love,
Sister Croft
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