Oxford?!?

May 23, 2011

where do I even begin? this week has been crazy! 

 Good news! Sister Keogh's foot is better :) but we still haven't been able to work. like at all! I haven't even had a chance to take her contact walking yet and we've done maybe half an hour of knocking. it is a long story so get comfortable.

  Tuesday i was so excited because I thought it was going to be almost a normal day of missionary work. we had a couple teaches set up and we were going to do as much contacting as we could until her foot couldn't handle it anymore.

 so that morning we had a district meeting in Staines and she was really really tired and said she felt really weak but she was doing ok. then right at the end of district meeting she said she was going to be sick so we ran over to the bathroom, well she kind of hopped haha poor girl. afterwords we were in the kitchen with all the elders in our zone and I looked over at her and she looked really pale and weak so we got her a chair and some water. then a couple minutes later I look down at her and it looked like she couldn't keep her eyes open...it was way sketch.. so automatically I was like "give her a blessing now!!" so all the elders gathered around her and gave her a blessing. that was sooo cool to see/hear. the blessing was amazing. one of the best blessings I have ever heard. it was talking about how the pains she is suffering with right now are putting heavenly father in pain as well and he is there for her and knows this is something she has to go through. It talked about how Jesus christ is praying for her as well as a lot of people on both sides of the veil. it said that we are supposed to be serving together and we knew each other before this life and we will learn a lot from the experiences we will be having and then it said it is preparing both of us for motherhood. it was such an amazing blessing. I wish I would have written it down. we tried writing down what we could remember. I love the power of the priesthood :) seriously, it was so cool to see all those elders gather around her. powerful stuff

so then right after the blessing our zl's said they would give us a ride home which I was grateful for because we would have had to take a train and 2 buses back to High Wycombe and would have taken probably 2 1/2 hours. sister k didn't seem to have the energy for that. she could barely walk to the car. then as the zl's are driving us to our flat sister keogh looks really sick. it was kinda funny cause the elders were like 'you're not going to be sick are you??' they didn't want to deal with that haha this is where it gets crazy. we had been driving maybe 10 minutes when I look over at sister k and her eyes are rolling in the back of her head and she couldn't keep her head up. immediately I called president shamo while the elders were talking to her trying to keep her conscious. president told us to take her to the hospital right away. she was going in and out of consciousness, it was so crazy. I've never seen anything like it. so then we get to the hospital and we were there for probably 3 or 4 hours, the poor elders, they were champs. they stayed the whole time. I was grateful for that though cause if they hadn't been there I think I would have been paniking a lot more. they ran all these tests on sister k and we thought she might have had a negative reaction to her pain medication for her foot but the doc said that's not what it was but they didn't know what the cause of it was... they were so much help haha the doctor came in and was all yeah we don't know any reason why she was going unconscious but hopefully it won't happen again. see ya later! wow, thank you very much.

so luckily by then she seemed to be doing a bit better so we took her back to the flat so she could rest. the next couple days weren't as bad. she seemed to be doing better and she was conscious so that was good!! I would take her to our appointments and then we would just come back to let her rest cause for some reason she was exhausted and really weak. it was pretty frustrating for both of us but we just kept saying to each other this is god's will! we're both supposed to learn something from this, we just have to figure out what it is. let's just say I've been able to read nearly half of the new testament. the morning after the hospital the zl's called to see how sister k was doing and she wasn't doing too well so they asked me what I was going to do that day and I said, read the book of john. and you bet I did! ha I love studying and reading the scriptures. but when it's all you do all day you get a little antsy.. thursday the mission doctor came over and we talked about what happened on tuesday and apparently in the MTC she passed out a couple times as well so the doctor told her he is going to recommend to president shamo that she goes home till we figure this out...

  that seemed to be a drive for sister keogh cause she slowly seemed like she was getting better and she was determined to work but then friday was nuts. she woke up that morning but then said she wasn't feeling well so she went back to bed and then around 10:30 she woke up again, she looked really sick. I felt so bad. she wasn't saying anything so I just kept reading my scriptures and then a couple minutes later I look up at her and her eyes are rolling in the back of her head again! so I ran over to her and was trying to keep her from going in and out of consciousness. I called president and sister shamo but they didn't answer, I called the mission doctor but he didn't answer. so then I called my district leader and talked to him and he said he would make phone calls. I was surprisingly calm the whole time, I think it's because it was the same thing that happened on tuesday. however, tuesday it lasted maybe an hour. friday it lasted maybe 2 1/2 hours!! finally I was able to get a hold of the mission doctor and he told me there was no need to take her to the hospital and basically if she passes out I just need to catch her if she falls and then leave her....ummm. ok? then we got a phone call from the office and they said a senior couple from the mish is going to pick us up and we are going to be staying with them for a couple days in oxford. yep, oxford! but they didn't pick us up till probably 1. sister keogh passed out maybe 4 times that morning. the first time I was so scared. it was such a crazy morning. it seemed like hours! sister keogh doesn't remember any of it.

 anyway, that is the condensed version of my week. we have been in oxford since friday. the clarks are the couple that we are staying with. they are lovely. we are like a little family haha on saturday they drove us around oxford but we didn't get to see too much cause we didn't get out of the car. they even drove us over to c s lewis' old house and his grave which was really cool. I was thinking of katie the whole time cause she always sends me c s lewis quotes :) he has a cool nature walk that you can go on so we went a little ways. sister keogh was really tired so we didn't get too far but we started talking to this couple that was there (finally some contacting!!) they were way cool. they actually knew a lot about our church already. we ended up talking to them for maybe 30 minutes. guess what they were doing? geo cashing haha they were way cool.

 sooo yeah... that's been my week :) crazy right? sister k passed out again after church yesterday. I don't know what is going on with her. she said she's never dealt with this before. it is weird. we're meeting with a doctor at some point today and hopefully he will give us a bit more direction. I don't know if they will send her home but she said she knows she is supposed to be on a mission so maybe she will just have to serve in the visitors center for a while? crazy. 

 the High Wycombe ward members keep calling us to see how we are. they are so great. we were supposed to speak yesterday. oops! apparently the director of napolean dynamite is in our ward for a few months, that's what one of the members was telling us last night haha a whole film crew is with them. they are staying in our area and filming a movie. think they need any missionaries in it? :)

anyway. yeah. I think that's about it. who knows where I'll be this week!
thank you for everything!! I love you all so much, you are great examples to me. the gospel is true:) one thing that has been amazing through all this is as I've had a lot of time to read scriptures I am gaining even more knowledge of Christ. I love learning about him and reading the stories in the new testament and reading of all the miracles he's performed. I've found some really cool scriptures that haven't ever really stuck out to me before now. 

 I love you so much! thank you for all you do! keep sister keogh in your prayers please :) sure love ya!
 love sister gregson


ps tell grandpa when I was at the oxford ward elder donaldson from the 70 spoke:) I talked to him afterwords and he remembered me from the mtc, only because of my blood and who i'm related to of course. he is an amazing guy!

pps. exodus 14:14
  &  John 6:29, 35, 40, 47, 69