The Canyon Country Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints flooded with love and lamentations Wednesday as hundreds of friends crowded inside to remember 20-year-old Robert Leinbach III as a vibrant jokester, an athlete and a poet.

 “He was a very compassionate person, and wanted everyone to be happy, even if he was hurting inside,” Carol Diaz said of her nephew, who died along with Christopher Singer, 19, when he crashed his car on Sand Canyon Road last week.
    His heart was big and tender; the 20-year-old Canyon High football alumnus would cry at the movies.
    Dozens of photographs documenting his life and accomplishments were arranged on posters, and a scrawled journal from June 1996 was left open for Leinbach’s family and friends to read — a slice of his personality:
    “Today I went to church and did the usual,” the journal said. “After church, my dad didn’t put his dish in the dishwasher so I called him lazy. And got into trouble.”
    Diaz said Leinbach’s jokes were often at the expense of others, but never mean.
    “He had a very funny sense of humor and he was extremely well liked by the entire community,” she said. “He made people feel good about themselves.”
    Trisha Efflandt, 20, said Leinbach was her first kiss — in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion during their eighth-grade graduation trip.
    “He would make a joke about everything,” she said. “I’m definitely going to miss mayonnaise and fries. He used to eat that. … This is just too much to handle.”

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