We had spent about thirteen months in Garstedt, (Hamburg) and were now moving to Bad Videl, near Frankfurt. Our house was on Tannenweg 2. There were ten homes on that street at the time. They all belonged to the Church. There was an apartment on each of two levels in each house. We were in the first one on the right going down the hill to them. The street was a dead end, so there was no through traffic. We were in the edge of a small-forested area. Each of the houses had families in them that were involved in the church building program. 

The school was just at the top edge of the hill coming down into our housing area. Since I was about the only woman of our group that spoke German, I was appointed to be the mediator for the others to introduce the children into the school and to the teachers, and to mediate in the difficulties that arose, and there were several of those. One of the boys of one family got involved with a German boy with stealing something. I was the one to mediate with the teachers for him. 

Of course, they all were negative towards us because they knew that we were Mormons. So that seemed to be the main gripe. The German boy blamed the Mormon boy of the doing, but he himself was the culprit. The teachers sat around a table as we met together. They started out with accusations about the Mormons. I stopped them and asked each of them what religion they professed. Some were Protestant and several were Catholic. 

The principal was Catholic and was the spokesman. I told him that no one was perfect, but I read in the paper about a Catholic boy that had gotten into trouble, so the Mormons are not the only bad people. That stunned him. As it turned out, the German boy was the one who had done the bad deed and he had blamed the Mormon boy from our housing area of doing it. After that we had some good relations with some of those teachers. Some of them came to our home to visit, and we even had the missionaries come and teach them in our home. 

The full-time missionaries would call me to see if I had people that they could come and teach, so we invited the teachers and many others for that. One of those teachers, Mrs. Deitrich, told me she knew the Book of Mormon was true. She was reading it and decided that she was going to write and change some of the wording in it. When she took her pencil to write, her hand got stiff and she could not move it. She tried several times, but she just could not move her hand. 

We had a family, Lehman, come and meet with the missionaries and us. They were really interested and were touched by the gospel message. The mother was asked to give a prayer at the end of the discussion one evening. She gave the most humble prayer. The spirit was there in force and was felt by everyone. Her husband was not as touched as she and the children were. They came to the baptism when Michel was baptized there in the Frankfurt Branch, and she, the mother, shed tears all during that meeting. They were later baptized. We heard years later of the daughter that had married an American soldier who was there in that branch then. They were in Virginia when Elmer and Blanche Hendricks were on their missions there, and when she learned that Elmer and Blanche were from Rexburg, Idaho, she told about joining the Church there with us in Germany. 

Our children were good little missionaries. They made friends with many people. They would invite people into our house when the people walked down past our place. Many of them walked down there just out of curiosity, and then there was a nice little forested area to walk through. I always had Church books and pamphlets of the Gospel on the little table in the living room near where we had them sit. As they saw these and the pictures amongst them they became very inquisitive. Sometimes they would ask if they could talk some of those things and read them. They said they would bring them back. Well, they didn't know, but that was why I had them there in the first place. There were five families that joined the Church through our acquaintances there. 

One day the children were playing in the yard when two ladies came walking by. They mentioned that they needed to visit a restroom. Our children told them that they could come in our house to do so. Well, they came in and afterward I sat them down in the front room by the table with all of the books and pamphlets. Then I served them a drink and cookies. They were elated that they were treated with such hospitality. They looked at the books and pictures. I had a good visit with them, and they took some of the literature with them. They walked away, thanking me for my kindness to them, and were beaming with joy. That made me feel good too. I always prayed, asking the Lord to help me be of good influence to others. 

When I walked up to the hilltop to do shopping, where there were several stores, I always met some nice and gracious people in those stores. Mrs. Hummel, who managed the drug store, was so nice and sweet. She always dropped everything to come and wait on me. She always placed something extra in my bag. The people in the bakery and other stores would do the same. When they saw me come in they would come to wait on me and almost bow their head to me. 
I started a fad there in the bakery. I would ask for hot bread that had just been taken out of the oven. The Germans had the idea that hot bread was bad for you. Before long though, the bakery could not keep in hot bread because everyone followed my doing and their business increased more and more. It was always sold out as fast as they could take it out of the oven. 

The grocery store was quite a distance from our house. Since Jack was gone from home much of the time to Berlin and Essen and Dortmund, I needed help getting groceries. Mr. Schumann and his wife owned the grocery store where we shopped and he agreed to deliver our groceries right to our house when we called our order in. Even the other families joined in to do that, so he always came and delivered things anytime any of us called our order in. They were such a nice couple. 

There were eight, and more at times, young sisters living in the lower apartment below us. They were sister missionaries working in the church building office near where we lived. One day at noon, when Mr. Schumann was there delivering my grocery order those young sisters came to their apartment and he looked puzzled. He then started to ask me, "Mrs. Sommer are those young ladies your, ah?" I said, "No, they are not my husbands other wives." He thought that I was the favorite wife and the others had to live below. He was so embarrassed as he drove away. 

He went back to the store and told his wife what he had seen. She had already forbid him to come down there, because she had heard that Mormons had more than one wife, and this seemed to verify to her that what she thought she knew of the Mormons was really true. She didn't want him thinking about having more wives. But he went back and told her that was a myth. It was so one time, but not anymore. That was a knows fable throughout all Europe from the days of the writer, Zane Gray. His novels were knows of and read by many Europeans, and were believed to be the gospel truth. 

The next time I went into the store when Jack was home with the car, as I walked in she put her hand over her face in embarrassment and apologized for her thoughts. She said that she was so sorry that she thought that we lived like that. That was really funny. We had a good laugh about that then, and we laughed again each time we saw each other after that. We invited them to our home for a meal a couple of times and even had the missionaries come and teach them. They were Catholic. They were not very interested in the gospel message, excusing themselves saying that they were too busy to take time and make investigation of it. They were very friendly though, and they even sent us some edible things through the mail, after we had returned home from there. We have visited them twice through the years when we were over there on a visit. We have friends in many places. 

These sister missionaries all lived below us in that three bedroom with one bathroom. I was assigned to be their housemother and help them understand and cooperate with one another. That was not easy. They came from several European countries and America, and not only didn't speak the same language, but didn't get along very well together. With one bathroom between eight or more, that was understandable. We always had study class each morning, and family prayer together night and morning. We had family home evening each Monday night together and one day a month we were to take them all together in our Volkswagen bus on an outing of their choice. Through English and German we were able to communicate with all of them. 

Their problems together were many, and I was always involved in trying to help them work their problems out and strive for the happy side of things. My responsibility for children was multiplied many times with those girls. They did not fight, but there were some tense moments at times. 

There were two new additional houses being built in that complex and some labor missionaries were there to help. We, the wives of the families there, were to feed those labor missionaries. It was scheduled where they would eat each meal. A couple of those sisters would feed them very scanty. They were still hungry afterwards and they had told me that they hadn't gotten enough to eat. So I learned to always have something more for them to eat when they were to be at those sisters place. They would come to our house and finish filling up. They looked forward to that each time they went to those sisters. 

Then we sisters were supposed to clean the building missionaries apartments, which were always in disarray. All of those sisters complained that is stunk so bad they couldn't stand to be there, so that left me and I was the one who did the dirty work. I washed their dirty clothes and saw to it that they were taken care of after that. I knew that it was the Lord's work to do that, just like Jack was doing, working on the Church buildings. I did my job and he did his. 

An experience I had one night while Jack was away in Berlin working. I was there in the house with the children. I awakened to the sound of a terrible breeze through the house. I got up to see if the children were all right. As I started to walk through the hallway I had to push myself because there was a terrible power pushing me back. I called on Heavenly Father to help me. I went to the kitchen and opened the back door to see and show that force that I was not afraid. I felt the Lord's spirit then, and I returned to my bedroom and prayed before I got in bed again and all was fine thereafter. 

One time I noticed mouse droppings behind the refrigerator. It was the only one we ever detected and probably came in through the front door when it was left open as the children were playing outside. Jack moved the refrigerator for me and there ran that mouse out across the kitchen floor. I screamed so loud that the mouse stopped in the middle of the floor and just stood there shaking in shock I suppose. Jack ran over and stepped on the mouse without it running away. I guess my screaming put it in shock!

Sister Lassig and I got together each morning and read from the Book of Mormon in German. We loved that reading together. She tried hard to learn German and I enjoyed helping her. She was such a sweet lady. It was always a wonderful feeling to associate with those sisters, even though there were some stressful moments between some of them at times, but I was always called to help settle their differences. 

One time I got to go with Jack to Berlin and saw where he had to sleep in such a dirty place. There were holes where rats could come into the room where he was. I was also in Coburg, where his living quarters were about the same as Berlin, but my dear husband never complained. We were in a nice comfortable home and he was always happy when he got to come home to us. That was on weekends every other week. More than half of the time we were there on that building mission, Jack was away from us working on a church building. It was always a joy for us as a family when we were able to be together on those weekends, when he was permitted to come home to us. 

I planted flowers by our house there in Bad Vilbel. I kept the yard and street swept and clean and it always looked neat and clean. At Christmas time one year we got an evergreen tree in a pot for Christmas and then planted it in the front yard that spring. It grew tall and once, years later, we went there to visit. That tree towered so high we could hardly believe it. 

Our building mission was really something one cannot comprehend without experiencing it one's self. It was work and service all the way. Looking back it makes us feel good to know we did the best we knew how. The Lord blessed us in every way, even though we were tested in different ways at times. When I look back on my life I can truly say that life has been very good. The best is to have a wonderful husband, and I love him so very much. I know how blessed I am for time and eternity, when I do my part I will have him there.

One of those missionaries, Heinz Reese got sick and was in the hospital for some time. He called me from the hospital and asked if I would come and give him a haircut. I told him to ask the nurse if it was all right that I do this. He called back and said that it was permissible, so I went to the hospital with my hair cutting tools. There were ten beds in that one room and a man in each bed. When the other men saw what I was doing for Heinz they all asked me to cut their hair too. 

I always carried pamphlets in my handbag of the Joseph Smith story. I handed each one of them a pamphlet and said, "if you will read this and can tell me what you have read, after I finish with Heinz I will cut your hair." It was a real circus with them. Anyway, it was a neat thing to talk to those men. They listened closely to what I said and I felt the Lord's spirit as I did so. I felt so good when I left there. It was a wonderful feeling. Heinz thanked me many times after that. 

The building supervisor's wife, sister Berg, came over to our home most every day and talked with me. They lived in the house directly across from us. She and the other sisters seemed to always have problems with one another, so I was the one they would come to to lay their problems before me. I told them that, "this was the Lord's work that we were involved in. Our husbands were called to build church buildings and we wives were permitted to come with. Now please let us do our part and be thankful that we could come with them." They all called me the peacemaker because I was usually able to help them resolve their differences. 

Hans Tiegel was a building missionary that worked with Jack for two years. Jack taught him about the gospel all the time and how he should learn to be in life. We had a building supervisor's conference in Abtenau, Austria. Hans tended our children during those three days and had fun with them. Raymond was three and half years old then. Hans said that Raymond could run so fast with his little legs that he couldn't keep up with him. 

From the edge of the hill where the road came down into our street the children would play in the street, since the only traffic was just those of us who lived there in that church group. Raymond learned to ride a two-wheeled scooter and could scoot down that hill just like the bigger kids. It was always a lively area, with all of the young children of our families there. 

One day Elder Theodore M. Burton (He was the president of the European mission area at that time and as assistant to the quorum of the twelve apostles), was driving up out of that street. Shawn said to him, "Goodbye, President Burton, I'll see you when I go on my mission." President Burton told us about that the next time he saw us. 

We had many choice experiences, we met and mingled with many people, and accumulated many spiritual memories during those three years. It was a great responsibility with many varied duties, and was even hard to do at times, but we were greatly blessed during that time, and have been blessed ever since, for having responded to the call from the Lord at that time in our lives. 

As we were about to finish our three years there and were contemplating our return home, we as a family decided that we would like to come back to America by ship, rather than airplane. We had bought a car and had it shipped to New York, where we were going to get it and travel the church history route across the U.S. to home. We got on the train in Frankfurt and traveled to Paris, France where we stayed in a hotel for two nights. 

Raymond got ill with a fever again and we could not tell what was the matter with him. I stayed in the hotel room with him while Jack took the other four children to see things in Paris and up to the Eiffel tower. He was so sick and I prayed asking the Lord to bless him to get well. He was such a sweet little boy. He wanted me to hold him hand. I held him in my arms and he feel to sleep, but he was really hot with fever. Before that night was over his fever broke and he was just fine the next morning. We never knew what it was that had beset him. 

On the ship the sea was rough and the children were seasick. The room steward brought a bowl of soda crackers for them to eat. It wasn't long after they had eaten the crackers that they were all up and well and were having a wonderful time. The sea was rough all of the way to New York, but it was a good experience for the family. It was Friday afternoon when we got off of the ship and settled in a hotel. 

We went to the World's Fair on Saturday, to church in the Manhattan ward on Sunday, and after some difficulty we were able to locate our car that had been shipped and were able to begin our journey on Tuesday morning. For the next several days it was enjoyable, but a strain with five children in the car traveling across the States to home. 

We rented our house out to Kay Beck and the farm to Lloyd Brewer when we left on our building mission. We had stored our furniture in a little building in the yard. When we were about to come back home three years later Jack's sister found as they went to get our furniture from that building, that the roof had caved in with heavy snow one winter, and all of the furniture had been ruined with mold and water. So when we got home we slept on camping cots until we were able to get new furniture. 

The business had not gone well and there were unpaid bills to take care of. Jack had worries on his hands from that. Getting work was also a struggle for some time. It took quite a while until we were able to make ends meet, and to do what we needed to do. With the Lord's help we were eventually able to get into a more secure feeling. Looking back, we were blessed in many ways. I remember though going to town with only one dollar in my purse and I knew that was all we had. Our children and I were still happy to support dad in all that he had to do. We knew that if we did our part in loving him and making him happy when he came home from his work and worries, we would be doing well. 

Grandpa was happy to see us when we arrived home. The kids were happy too. We all were happy that the past three years were past. However, Raymond would ask every day for some time, "when are we going home?" That was his memory of home, since he was just under two years old when we left to go over there. He thought that our home was in Germany. I would tell him that this was our home before we went to Germany, and he would say, "oh, that is just where we lived." He was so sweet, but wondered over many things. I love our children. They are such a joy to me. 

When school started that fall, it was hard for the children. They missed three years of the most important classes in their youth in English. Michel was a wonder. She said that she was going to read the Book of Mormon so that she could learn to read English, and she did that. Raymond went to Kindergarten. Maxine Lamprect was his teacher. He did well and she loved Raymond. She told us that when Raymond looked at her it seemed like he was looking right through her. She always told me that he was so special. 

Shawn, Thane and Jack found it very hard because they had missed three years of school, they did progress, but it was hard, especially for Jack. What good, sweet children they were to me and I was always concerned over them. My life was mingled with all of their problems and concerns. When I saw the school bus coming, bringing the children home from school, I would think, "Now Emmeli, what can I teach our children that I have not taught them yet?"

Along with their school activities we tried to get our children to take music lessons. Some did for a while. Michel took piano lessons and did well, but did not like to practice. Thane took accordion lessons and Shawn took trumpet lessons, but they didn't stay with it very long. They played some sports, but we weren't very encouraging to them, at least not enough to encourage them to excel. 

Jack had the boys help him haul they hay from the field. The 4th of July was just a hay hauling day for them. They were always good at helping, even though dad pushed them to work hard and long. Their friends could go to town and celebrate, but dad had them working. We did go for a drive through Yellowstone Park a few times and went fishing out on the lake once. Michel was the only one to catch a fish that time, and she was really proud of that. Jack and Thane used dad's old truck and hauled hay for the neighbors too. One time I went over where they were going with a big load and I was sure they were going to tip that load over. As I saw them coming, and the road was lower on one side, and they were tipping. I waved for them to stop but they just laughed at me and kept coming. 

My dear sweet Jack worked so hard to make life nice for us all. When the children would get new clothes or shoes, I would tell them to thank daddy for the shoes or whatever they had gotten. I wanted the children to know how hard daddy worked for us all, and we had to let him know how much we appreciated and loved him for it. I let them know that daddy is our life and he is so very special to us. 

Then when I would have the meals ready, and he was late most of the time, I would say, "oh, where is daddy? His supper is getting cold." Then I tried not to let the kids know that is upset me when he was late. I had to change my views and not let it bother me and cause the children to get upset too. When I changed my thinking everything was much better. 

Grandpa always came to eat with us at breakfast time each morning. When I opened the curtain about 6:00 a.m. and he would come right over as soon as the curtain was opened. It seemed like he was standing at his door to come as I opened the curtain. He was a good man, but it was not easy for me at times worrying about my children, and then worrying about him too. I did my best to be nice and helpful to him. I washed his clothes, shined his shoes, and cleaned his little house after he moved out from us into his little house. 

Grandpa had registered his Hereford cattle for a time and he was so proud of them. He would feed and tend them very painstakingly. He did lots of things on the farm and was very proud of it. Then Jack bought the farm from him and he was very happy about that. He told me he was happy Jack bought it so that it would stay in the family.

 Text copied from Life History of Jack Sommer and Emmeli S. Sommer: (Minor grammar and spelling changes made by Emily Anderson).