Unlikely Service

Seth and I have set a goal to give service as much as we can, at least once a week. We were inspired by this last general conference and decided that we need to step it up a notch by doing more than "nice" things everyday but at least once a week take time out of our busy schedules (school, work, family, more school work) to give up some time to help others. Today we had a most unlikely opportunity to do just that. Since Marty is a fire chief of Tukwila, he is in the know of when service is needed. He signed Seth and I up to be volunteers to help the Tukwila Police Department conduct SWAT training exercises. We figured it would be a pretty fun and unique way to give of our time.
Well... I didn't really know what I was getting into but when everyone else starting showing up with bullet proof vests on and thick clothes and all the guys were asking Seth if he had brought a cup I knew we might be in trouble. Basically our job was to be actors for a situation that could potentially occur. We did a couple scenes, Seth played the role of a scared and freaked out employee of a bank a few times, I played the role of a dead person lying on the ground and the team had to step over me. We both played the role of hostages about to be blown up by a terrorist. The scariest one was when I played the role of being a single hostage and the "bad guy" was using me as a shield. It really is kind of scary, they have chalk bullets that apparently hurt really really really bad and the SWAT teams that are practicing are so intense and amped up, it does seem real in the heat of the moment. Luckily for me when I was taken hostage I didn't get shot but I had a few close calls.
We were also able to learn how to conduct a SWAT mission and how to react in certain situations, hopefully this information will never have to come in handy though. Who knew service could be as exciting as this.