Its War!! - Don't ever play pranks on the missionaries!

Okay, so I know that I just posted earlier today, but I had a request for the story of my prank war with the missionaries. Not the best idea I ever had.

One Wednesday night we were having Elder Bryce Barron and his companion Elder Tate Hansen over for dinner and a discussion with Ashley Lowe.

They showed up early so, Ash and I were kind enough to allow them to wash our cars!

They did such a good job that we had to thank them somehow. So we did, after they went to bed we thanked them...all over their car!

The window chalk is water proof so they had to rub it off I guess. Apparently it took them an hour and a half to get it all off. And poor Elder Baby Hansen got a blister. Boo-fricken-hoo!

The next day I didn't get my usual morning phone call from Bryce so I knew that it was becuase they were plotting against me. At about 10:30 am, right after I finished telling her the whole story, my Mom gets a call from their apartment. She answers it cautiously. "Hello?"

"Hello ma'am. This is Elder Huckvale, I'm an assistant up here in Sacramento. Is there a Holly Sommerville available ma'am?" My mom instantly started shaking.

"Yes there is, one moment please." She pulls the phone from her ear and covers the reciever. "HOLLY YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE! It's one of the assistants! He wants to speak with you." She was totally freaking out.

I wasn't buying it for a minute. "Hello? This is Holly."

"Yes, Holly Sommerville? This is Elder Huckvale. It seems that we have a problem." Oh boy, here we go! "I have Elders' Barron and Hansen here in the office with me," Bull! The caller id said it was their apartment and they hadn't gotten cell phones yet...but i'll play along, "Were these two Elders at your home last night?"

"Yes they were. We had a dinner appointment with them, and then they were teaching a discussion. What's the problem?" I totally recognize the voice but it's not Hansen or Barron...who is it?

"I understand that the investigator they were teaching is also a girl?"

What kind of question is that? "Yes she is...so?"

"Holly, was there a chaperone with you last night? We understand that there may be some inappropriate things going on between you and one of these Elders,"

I just realized, it's Elder Hiatt, Hansen and Barron's roommate. I'd never met him in person but I had talked to him a few times. "Yah, my dad was here...and so was the rest of the family." Oh man, he's really trying.

"Was the chaperone actually IN the home?"

"He was in the room! Elder, I don't see what the problem could be. I promise nothing inappropriate was happening. That's gross, if I wanted a missionary I'd find a cuter one than either of those two!" At this point I can hear giggling in the background and Elder Hiatt is also trying not to laugh. My Mom is totally freaking out. I had her going the whole time. Bonus points for pranking my Mom too!

After straining to regain his composure Hiatt continues, "So then what happened to the car? We understand that there may have been some damage done to it?"

Hahaha, damage. You're so clever. "Well I wouldn't call it damage. Unless the 'Princess' line damaged Barron's ego!" Hiatt's really laughing now. "Elder Hiatt you're going to have to try harder if you want to fool me!"

BUSTED!

"Oh, man...how'd you know it was me?" I only talk to the kid on the phone every night and he thinks I wouldn't recognize his voice? What a fool! "Come on Elder Hiatt, really? You called from the apartment and expect me to believe that you are in Sac? You're really bad at this."

"Well we had to get you back somehow."

"Try harder!" And I hung up the phone. My Mom was totally confused and she was raging when I explained it to her.

Well that was fun, I thought it was over...thought they'd given up and I had won. I thought too soon. Never underestimate the power of the missionaries.

The next morning was Saturday. I was planning to sleep in for a very long time. My plans came to a screeching halt when I was awakened by my sister Courtney. "Holly, what did you do to your car?"

What!? It was too early for this.... I got out of bed and dragged myself outside. Lo and behold...

Yes. They put chocolate syrup and cookies all over my car! "Don't play with fire?" Yah, except too bad they spelled 'chastity' wrong. Okay, it's official...ITS ON!

Monday night it was Courtney, Candace and me. This was more of a 'just for fun'...as opposed to a 'revenge' kind of thing. We made posters that said "Tag, you're it!" We put that on their door and hung little fake missionary tags all over the place. We also put dish soap all over their car windows so that when they tried to rinse it off it just lathered up. Oh...and I put the cookies and the chocolate syrup bottle, that they left on my lawn, on their doormat.

The plan was doorbell ditch. Candace wouldn't do it and I was driving so Court was up. We pulled around the corner where we could still see their front door and Court made her way up the stairs. Now, while we were 'decorating' their front door their lights were still on. We could've been caught at any moment. But soon the lights went out, right before Courtney rang the doorbell. "Ding-dong," she made a dash for it. The lights went on in a second and three out of the four missionaries were out the door. Mission accomplished, except there was one problem...COURTNEY RAN THE WRONG WAY! Now she was stuck in the back of the complex hiding behind the dumpster! I freaked out, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't go get her, I couldn't even communicate with her or we all would've been busted. So I just stood there watching, and waiting.

Barron and Hiatt were looking everywhere for the culprit. And Hansen was using a small Halloween bucket to rinse the soap off the windows. As I just sat, and waited.

After a few minutes Hiatt and Barron were back at the top of the stairs. Just standing there chatting, while Hansen continued to wash the car. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I was about to go confess when suddenly I saw Courtney peeking aroung the corner. She was trying to figure a way out but I just told her to go hide. We'd wait for them to go inside and then I'd go save her.

As Courney tucked herself back into the corner, the missionaries all went inside. The soap would have to come off tomorrow. "Ok," I thought, "in a few more minutes, they'll be sound asleep and I can go rescue Courtney."

Wrong again. All of a sudden the three Elder's ran outside and came sprinting down the stairs running in seperate directions. It was an ambush! They figured someone still had to be back there and they were going to find her.

I heard a scream, then a little bit of argueing, and someone saying, "hold her right there!" Elder Hansen came around the corner, picked up his candy bucket and filled it with water. As he turned back I heard some yelling and then I heard loud footsteps. Courtney bolted. She came running around the corner faster than a speeding bullet and she was soaked.

They made a feeble attempt to run after her but soon gave up as we honked back to them and drove out of sight. Courtney was the hero! And for her, I had to get them back...one last time!

This one had to wait. It couldn't be the next night or even the next two nights. They would be expecting that. But more importantly, my Mom could not find out. They had recruited her to call them with a warning whenever we were on our way. This attack had to be totally confidential. But in order to pull it off, I needed one more recruit. Laurie Ponce.

It was perfect! Every tuesday night the missionaries had dinner at the Ponce's house. They would never expect us to strike in broad daylight. All Laurie had to do was keep them away from the front window. And to my surprise, she agreed!

Tuesday 5:35 pm, Laurie texted me. "They're all here. We are just sitting down. Get in and get out FAST!" We were off. Chocolate syrup, crushed nuts, honey, marshmallows, and whipped cream, all over! Best of all. They weren't the only Elder's there! Elder Chavez and Elder Gregory were also there. And Elder Chavez was a homophobe! So for him...a rainbow, gay symbols, and a ton of San Francisco reference's. I only wish I had pictures of the damage....or more importantly...pictures of their faces when they saw it! VICTORY!

Sister Ponce, however impressed she was, was regretful. She had told the missionaries that it needed to end and called me and told me the same, and that she never should have agreed to help me. I was totally bummed. We won but I felt so crappy. I wrote apology notes to all of the Elders. And it was over.

That night I recieved a call from Elder Chavez, "Hey Holly, how you doin?"

He told me what had happened on his end and how Sister Ponce had asked them to end it and they agreed, with fingers crossed. Barron had told Chavez from the beginning what was going on and Chavez was stoked to help him out. He said that he was so excited that I pulled him into the game too. He said he felt like it was an invitation to have fun with us and he loved it. They were going to make it a "Zone Activity" to get me back! If you thought I was bummed before, this took the cake.

After a long chat Chavez and I came to the conclusion that Laurie was right, it was fun while it lasted but it needed to end. We had decided it was a draw and that it was over.

I had the time of my life and I will never forget my prank war with the missionaries. And Courtney is still my hero for taking the bucket on that cold night in Stockton.