May 26, 2014

Hi everybody!! 

If you didn't read my last email, I got transferred to Berkeley California. And this place is awesome! There’s so many great people here. Some ready to hear the gospel, and some not. Also, i got a new companion, his name is Elder Steiner, and he’s great. He’s waiting for his visa to go to Brazil, but for now he’s serving here in this mission, and he just got assigned as a district leader. He’s really obedient, it’s awesome.

                           Downtown Berkley viewed from the Berkley Hills

This week we had quite the adventure. There was a meeting we had to go to in Oakland on temple hill, and were in a biking only area, and there weren't any other elders going, so we couldn't get a ride. That’s okay though, because there is a public transportation train (Bart) that runs all over the bay area - and i like riding the train. 

So we go to the Bart station, and hop on what we thought was the Richmond-Fremont line - which runs through Oakland. A few stations later, we went through this really long tunnel, and Elder Steiner said - "hmm, i don't remember it taking this long to get to Oakland." When we got to the next station, i poked my head out the door, and looked around and said "Elder! Get off the train. Were in San Francisco!"

Ha-ha our detour took over a half hour of extra travel time, and transferring on to two more trains to get us back on the right side of the bay where we needed to be. It turns out - we were going in the right way originally, but we were on the wrong train, and we broke off and ended up in the wrong city. Luckily we had planned some extra travel time into our schedule, and we got to the meeting on time. 

I learned a few things from this experience. First, when you’re in the north Berkeley Bart station, and you want to go to Oakland, get on the Richmond-Fremont line, and not the Richmond-San Francisco line. As innocent as this incident was, we were careless as to which train we chose to get on. Our attitude was - oh, this train is going south, it must be the right train to get on. If we had paid more attention we would have realized that the track we got on went the right way at first, but then broke off to somewhere we didn't want to be.  I feel like it works the same way down in the subway as it does in life. I feel like there are many paths that appear to be in line with the "straight and narrow" path.

One of the devils tricks is to make us think that all of the paths lead to the same place, but when we take a moment and examine God's plan of salvation (the map of our life) we can see that there is only one path that leads to eternal life - and that all other paths lead to places we don't want to be. There is only one train we can ride to exaltation in God’s kingdom forever. And that's riding the train with Jesus Christ. 

Also, it is easier to make one good choice, then it is to try and reverse the effects of a bad choice. It is easier to maintain abstinence from a sin, then it is to remove the effects of the sin - or an addiction to the sin. It would have been wayyyyy easier to have just taken the right train, then to make a wrong choice - and have to navigate our way home from a place that is unfamiliar and far from our final destination. 

Sorry i have no more time to write this week. I hope everyone has a great week!!

Elder Allison