Soren in Idaho: The Balloon that Brought Heavenly Happiness

Hello Family,

This week was so crazy! we had so much going on! meetings on meetings on meetings. Mission Leadership Council, Zone Training, and 6 hours of church meetings this Sunday!!!! wahooo!!! 3 hours of church is gonna be nothing when I get home hahah. I love it tho I enjoy being busy. Always working always on my feet, its gunna be weird going back to island speed. ha

Frequently asked question for Elder Soren From Laie: "Oh!!! did you work at the Polynesian Cultural Center???"...............no......

Every single person I tell asks me this hahaha its pretty funny. Elder Bebee beats them to it sometimes and says "yeah but he didn't work at the PCC" we always know its coming every time I say where im from. lol

4th of July was crazy! we spent the night before down in Soda Springs with Elder Duano and Haas. We went to the natural soda springs it was fizzy like soda but tasted like metal hahah it was cool tho. Then we went and saw the geyser and popped fire works! Then in the Morning we went on a hike at 5:30am we were dead tired. It was cool the hill looked over all of Soda Springs. Then the town had a huge breakfast pancakes sausages and eggs it was a huge picnic! then we were in the town parade! we decorated Elder Duanos truck with balloons and bought candy and got about 150 book of Mormons to pass out! there were so many people at the parade. We passed out all the book of Mormons, all our DVDs, every single gospel material we had in the truck. we ran out of candy as well! the people loved us it was so cool we had a bunch of missionaries walking along side the truck passing out book of Mormons and the people were cheering! it was sick it felt like we were war heroes or something as they cheered for us. it was soo cool! then we had a BBQ with all the missionaries in poky. Then went and watched "frozen" at the institute building. I love that movies its sweet. Then we went and watched the fireworks till 11. We took our all day pday serious. it was sooooo fun!

The Lord specifically answered my prayer during the parade. Since we ran out of everything we had I thought about taking the balloons off and giving them to the kids. I had a prayer in my heart that there could be a certain kid, someone special that i could give the balloon to. I was standing in the back of the truck searching the crowd for a certain someone. Not even 2 min after I had the idea, that's when I saw him....

A boy (unlike all the other kids running to get candy), was bound to his seat by his physical disability. Chords filled with oxygen tied him down to his red camping chair. A perfect son of our Heavenly Father sat there enjoying the parade from the side lines. I immediately recognized that the balloon I had in my hand was for him. I jumped out of the truck, ran over and handed it to him with a smile followed by a Hi 5. He had a heavenly smile on his face that warmed my heart. The truck was a ways away now so I had to go. But as I looked back at this young boy, a feeling of love entered my heart knowing that, that simple blue balloon could make someone smile like that. I am so grateful to be a vehicle of the spirit, that we are tools of our Heavenly Father. Servants of the Most High, we are blessed to have the opportunity to preform small and very simple acts of kindness to help others feel the love of our beloved Father in Heaven. Now I do not boast in my own strength as Ammon tells his brother Aaron. But I glorify my God and His spirit which led my eyes to see this boy. He provided me with the opportunity to make one of his perfected children happy. Oh how my heart swells just thinking about the blessings of missionary work. This is one of the most rewarding investments I have ever made in my life so far.

I pray that you will seek for opportunities like this so that you may feel the way I do. Missionary work in all of its shapes and forms will bring you a divine happiness that comes only from serving our fellow brothers and sisters. People are always on the pursuit for happiness I feel that we, members of the church have found the secret to happiness. It's Service. Once we realize that we are nothing but servants of our God, that is when the windows of Heaven open, opportunities present themselves for us to receive joy and happiness. The material things, the popularity or praise we receive from being cool, the number of followers or likes we get don't even amount to the self satisfaction and joy one can receive from sharing our fathers love with those around us.

I love my job. I love being a servant. I love My Father in Heaven. I love being a missionary.

I love you all with all my heart.

miss you much

Stoked to serve,

Elder Soren