Service = Greatness

Just the other day, some of us were part of a Church Service Project. We helped paint and helped renovate Forest Home Farms in San Ramon. After all the hard work, some people were selected to be in an article. One of those people was Dallin! Here's a link to the article.

Painting the Fence

Today, we finished a service project from way back last year (yeah, it sounds pathetic)! You see, we painted a section Sister Holland (a senior citizen in our ward)'s fence in her backyard. Now we came back to paint the rest of the fence.

Brother Spencer, Rick, Kyle Worley, Ryan, Dewlin, Brandon, Dallin, Jeremy, Jaren, Tay, and I met at her house with tarps, brushes, paint scrapers, and stuff.

Right behind the backyard was a big meadow on a hill.

The only problem was, we couldn't find the paint! Jaren and I searched the garage for the paint can (it was pretty much an I Spy book on steroids)!

Jaren eventually found the can tucked away in some shelf. Then, at last, we started painting. But it started getting dark, so that was kind of tricky. And Brother Spencer had made some lemonade, but it got kind of chilly for that!

And a turkey flew into a tree and kept gobbling at us!

We also had to get the "behind the bushes" area.

After painting the whole fence and near the gate, we all cleaned up and went home. Fun, huh?

Helping the Homeless

In case if you didn't know, Dallin, Jaren, and some other families went into San Francisco and gave sack lunches and socks and other things to the poor and homeless. I'm sure it helped show Christmas Spirit!

Christmas Spirit Service

Today, the youth, including us Deacons, were divided into groups and went to certain people's houses, and then we'd do service for them to get them in the Christmas spirit. Dallin, Rick, Jeremy, Kyle Makaiwi, Teddy, Jaren, and I attended. Teddy and I were in the same group.

Teddy and my group went to Sister Finch's house and raked up the leaves and installed some lights. Then, we sang to Sister Finch and had doughnuts and Martinelli's. And then we all went to Sister Taylor's and had hot chocolate.

Scouting for Food: The Adventure

Yes, this was a pretty successful Scouting for Food! We first started at the church, where we watched the basketball game. It was actually pretty epic!

Dallin, Rick, Alec, Kyle, Dewlin Rosdahl and Spencer Patterson (two 11-year-old scouts), and I got divided into groups. Alec and I went with Brother Habecker. We rode through the Danville Livery to the neighborhood right behind it (here's a map from Google Earth of the area we did).

Usually we just put the flyers on the people's porches, and then we'd pick up their food next week, but his time we had to do it all in one day. So, we knocked on people's doors, and told them about Scouting for Food, and then we'd go back and pick up all the bags we could find. Alec and I worked our way up Town and Country Drive, and then we met up with Dallin (who was with Brother Hart), and he joined us on Appian Court.

On Appian Court, Dallin was kicking a rock down the street. Then the rock skipped up and hit the rear of a parked car. It didn't leave a mark, but we ran away as fast as we could. We sprinted to the car and zoomed off just as I leaped into the back seat!

We continued up Town and Country Drive. Along the way, I did about three or four whole courts by myself! Also, we found Ryan Hales (another 11-year-old scout), who also decided to help us.

Now, Town and Country Drive is a big hill, so the farther we went, the more we could see Mt. Diablo!

When I got to Avon Court, I saw two signs that made me laugh. I even put a flyer on the green guy.

Town and Country Drive eventually turns into Loch Lommond Way. On the very end of Loch Lommond Way, Alec and Dallin got to this one guy's house, but the guy got ticked off at them and said he was on a "phone call". His house looked like a modern art museum (this is a picture of it from Google Maps).

When we got to the very end of Loch Lommond Way, we worked our way up some other streets. Dallin and I took the left side, while Alec and Ryan took the right side.

Dallin and I got to a house with a bunch of weird signs on the front porch. Just by looking at those signs, I think the people living there really liked dogs.

Then, at the next house, An old lady answered the door (I was kind of nervous because there was a NO SOLICITING sign on the door). Before Dallin or I could say anything, she yelled, "I DON'T WANT ANY!" and slammed the door. We put a flyer on her porch anyway.

Then, we headed back down Town and Country Drive, and drove around until we saw a bag of food. Whenever we saw one, we would yell, "ITZABAGITZABAGITZABAG!" Alec and I even fought for one bag!

Then, we went to In-N-Out out in San Ramon (if you don't know what those are, they're big burger places in California, Nevada, Arizona, and in Utah).

Oh yeah, in the bathroom, there are those motion-sensored paper towel things, so when Alec walked by, the paper towel came out by itself (and kind of scared him a bit).

Have you ever noticed the scriptures on the bottom of practically every paper product from In-N-Out (except for the fry trays and the napkins)? Here, take a look!

Soda Cup

Burger Wrapper

(You can't really see it, but it says Revelations 3:20). Anyway, that's pretty much our Scouting for Food adventure!

Dallin and Alec's Service Project

Dallin and Alec are doing a service project for their Citizenship in the Community merit badge. They put bags on doorsteps and people would fill them up with non-perishable foods, just like Scouting for Food. Then Alec will take the food and take it to a food bank in Concord. Then Alec will go pick pears, or something.