Home Teachers and Balloons

By Pat Graham

A True Story

Instructions: Remove these two pages from the magazine, glue them onto lightweight cardboard, and cut them out. Carefully poke holes in each picture where marked, assemble them in the proper order, and secure them with ribbon, yarn, or rings, to make a flip-story.

1. Last night our home teachers came for a visit. They shook hands with all my family, even me.

2. After everyone sat down, Brother Sorensen blew up a red balloon and handed it to me.

3. He counted, “One, two, three,” and said, “let go!” The air rushed out of the balloon, and it flipped and flopped all over the room.

4. I laughed when it landed on my brother’s head.

5. “Some of us are like the red balloon,” Brother Sorensen said. “We get excited about something and just flip and flop around, not knowing where we will end up.”

6. Then he handed one end of a piece of string to my sister. He pulled the string tight and threaded his end through a straw.

7. Next he told Brother Brown to blow up his blue balloon. Then Brother Sorensen carefully put a piece of tape over the straw and fastened it to the balloon.

8. Brother Brown let go of the blue balloon. Swoosh! It went straight down the string to my sister’s hand.

9. “When we prepare and know where we want to go, we can be like the blue balloon and go straight to our goal,” Brother Sorensen said. Then he asked, “Do you have any goals?”

10. My brother said, “I want to go on a mission.” My sister said, “I want to earn my Gospel in Action award.” And I said, “I want to be baptized when I’m eight years old.” We all said that we would rather be like the blue balloon and prepare for our goals now.

Illustrated by Elise Black