LDS Missionary: France Paris Mission

The Battle Ends & Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was coming quickly and we expected someone pretty special to come and speak to us on the special day.

Elder Garland still thought he was so awesome for staying under Elder Shumway’s bed for a long time. Little did he know, we were about to pull off an even better prank just against him.

“One of my buddies said when his dad was at the MTC, his companion pulled a prank on everyone in the room. The Narnia hole on top of the dresser, if you stick your foot down it, you can reach the drawers. When everyone was in bed, the comp started opening and closing the drawer and everyone freaked out. We should put one of you up there and do that one night,” I told Elders Barker, Livingston, and Shumway one night in the dorm rooms.

A Narnia hole is what we called places that were hidden in which past missionaries hid things in. The top of the dresser was the most well-known one, but there were also things hidden behind outlets and other small spaces.

“Barker, you have to do it!” Elder Livingston said. “Shumway and I are too big to sit on top of the dresser.”

It was true. Elder Livingston was built like a brick wall. He played rugby in high school and looked like he was really good just looking at his size. Elder Shumway played football as a lineman. He was told he needed to lose weight before he left on his mission, which he did quickly because he was wanting to go so bad. Elder Barker was built like a twig. He was the skinniest person I had ever seen in my life.

“Dang it! I knew you would all make me do it,” Elder Barker said in a whiny tone.

The night finally came where Elder Barker chose to execute the plan. We put him on top of the dresser and concealed him behind boxes and luggage.

We waited until the last minute because he was sitting pretty far down into the Narnia hole. Only his torso was visible unless he leaned forward.

It wasn’t long before the lights out time came. We turned off the lights and got into bed and began the usual talking about random things.

“Abel. That was so funny when you yelled ‘Nice’ when Soeur Wiseman dropped everything,” Elder Garland said reflecting on the day’s events.

The desks in our classroom are like the college desks where the little table flips up and can move out of the way. Sister Wiseman somehow knocked her desk and her giant stack of books fell everywhere, right in the middle of Soeur Mumford’s lesson. As I have done multiple times, I yelled ‘Nice,’ because that’s what my friends and I would say whenever someone did something loud or stupid. It was just a normal reflex.

“Why is that funny?” I demanded.

“Because you never talk!” Elder Garland shot back.

“Whatever. I talk all the time!” I said back.

“No, you don’t!” Elder Coleman piped in.

“It’s ok, Abel. When you do talk it’s usually something funny,” Elder Garland said.

Click. Click. Click. Bang! One of Elder Garland’s dresser drawers slammed shut. It was almost too quiet with us talking.

“What was that?” Elder Garland asked hurriedly. “Did you hear that?”

“What are you talking about, Garland?” Elder Pieper asked.

Click. Click. Click-Click. Bang. This time it happened quicker, but still not as loud as I expected.

“There it was again,” Elder Garland said. “You had to have heard it that time!”

“That was scary!” Elder Pieper said in a worried voice. He seemed legitimately scared, but I swear he knew Elder Barker was up there.