I Love Prunetucky

So, Sunday, we're sitting in church. We sit on the front row on the side, by the organ. After I play the Sacrament hymn, I go down and sit with my family. Last Sunday was pretty hot (by Monterey standards, anyway), so they had all the doors open, trying to catch the non-existant breeze. There are a set of doors in the front of the chapel, one at the end of my row and one on the other side, by the Sacrament table.

So, as we're kind of zoning during one of the talks (early church + lack of sleep = not terribly alert) and I notice a little critter coming in the door by the Sacrament table. I look and it looks like someone's pet white rat...white with a pink nose and pink eyes. It starts scampering towards us, up against the podium. The only people who can see it are the front row people and maybe the second row people. As it gets closer, I realize that it's not a rat, it's a baby POSSUM. Just before it gets to our row, it turns and heads up the stairs to the choir seats.

By this time, the speaker and some of the bishopric can tell something is going on, but they aren't sure what. A minute after it scampers up the stairs, Brother Lente gets up, follows it up the stairs, across the back behind the podium and traps it in the corner behind the priests. Everyone is watching him, thinking he's chasing his two year old again, but the two year old is behind him. Finally, he comes down the other stairs, holding this critter. By then, half the congregation is laughing, the other half have no idea what's going on, the speaker is kind of flustered. She looks over at him and says, "Oh MY! That explains it, I was wondering if something was wrong with me!"

Brother Lente finally deposited the critter outside, but not until he held it up and showed the congregation like he was showing off his newborn baby. It was a great moment in the Prunedale ward. ;0)