# 16 - Church Bugs

Before we built the Omner Valley Stake Center, we used to drive over to Vernal and use the Uintah Stake Tabernacle for Stake Conference. Us kids really enjoyed sitting in the balcony and looking down on the garden of lady's hats. When conference was in the Fall, the first year I was a Deacon, our Ward got the Church Bug assignment.

There were a lot of Box Elder trees on the Tabernacle grounds and that meant Box Elder bugs. We called them Church Bugs because every fall they flock into homes and other buildings, including churches, to find shelter. The Tabernacle was crawling with them. In the end we hauled off five 40 gallon garbage cans full of them. It was no easy task, sweeping up living moving creatures. We went through the whole place five or six times.

Still, come Sunday, there were dozens of them crawling about during the meetings. Of all the bugs, Church Bugs are my favorite. They aren't much trouble and don't do any harm. They're tidy nice looking little creatures, all dressed up in their dark suit and red tie and vest. I always thought it was sort of nice to have them around. I remember once my brother Todd did a Science Project on Box Elder bugs. The teacher suggested he make observations about their behavior. After a couple of weeks, all Todd had observed was, "...their persistent habit of lying on their backs with their feet up and doing nothing at all."

While we were waiting for the meeting to start, Dad told us a story on Grandpa. "Way back, when Grandpa was young, he was sitting in Stake Conference in Star Valley. They were on the front row of the balcony, just like we are here today. Grandpa was sitting beside his nephew Evan. Evan had a sinus problem. The meeting was long and the room got hot and stuffy. Evan fell asleep. His head rolled back and his mouth lolled open. He couldn't breathe much through his nose. Grandpa, had a bit of the Dickens in him. He took to tearing up a piece of paper into tiny little bits. He had a whole pile of them. Then, he up and dumped them in Evan's open mouth. Evan choked and blew a blizzard of paper confetti out over the audience below. It created quite a stir and embarrassed Evan near to death."

I'm eating this story up!

"Evan swore he'd get even, and get even he did. Later in the Summer, during a long hot Sacrament Meeting, there was a break for a rest song at about half way. Grandpa was asleep and never even noticed the singing. During the last verse of Abide With Me, Evan nudged Grandpa, from the row behind and whispered, "Fred! They just called on you to say the closing prayer." Grandpa hopped up and arrived at the pulpit just as the chorister was sitting down. He bowed his head and dismissed the meeting. The Bishop didn't know what to do, so he called on someone to reopen the meeting so they could hear the final speaker. They say that was the last time Grandpa slept in church!"

I felt a strong kinship with Grandpa that day.

Years later, when they turned the Uintah Stake Tabernacle into the Vernal Temple, I went for an Endowment Session. After the session I was sitting in the beautiful Celestial Room, contemplating what had become of that grand old building. And there on a window sill crawled a Church Bug! I felt like Grandpa was near and I smiled as warm memories flooded my soul.