In Coke Newell’s book On the Road to Heaven published by Zarahemla Books out of Provo, Utah in 2007, the story begins at Paradise Mountain in Colorado and follows Everon West through the end of high school and on through his early twenties. The beginning of the book is very descriptive about Everon, who goes by Kit, and his best friend Cris Wilde, and how they roam the mountains and love Nature. The reading was very hard to get into at first because it was so descriptive. As the plot begins Kit gradually starts to become a hippie in both his appearance and beliefs. It was hard for me to identify with him at that point in the book because of his radical views. Kit becomes a strict vegetarian, begins to do drugs to get a different outlook on life, and stops cutting his hair.
Through his friend Cricket, Kit meets a girl named Annie. Annie has run away from home because her family has recently converted to the LDS faith and she does not like all the rules and restrictions that her parents now have in place for her. Kit and Annie quickly fall in love and before you know it they are going to Woodstock together. They hitchhike to get to Missouri which is such a foreign but yet fascinating concept today. Hitchhiking is not longer an acceptable practice. Frequently throughout the book Kit hitchhikes to many places across the West. Kit and Annie get arrested for hitchhiking on the interstate. Annie calls her parents who instantly fly her home and welcome her into their home after about two months of her being gone. Kit’s parents let him sit in jail four days before flying him home. Annie is grounded for a long time because of her actions, whereas Kit’s family finds it comical that he was dumb enough to hitchhike on the interstate.
I liked how Kit’s family was so relaxed in their views of life and how their children acted. It allowed Kit to explore and discover the person he was and find the path he wanted to go down. Through the process of finding himself, he is searching for the meaning of life. Kit reads many books to help him to find out what he believes in. He originally thinks that there is no God, but yet in a lot of his books they mention Christ. No matter how much he thought there was no God his mind kept returning to Christ.
Kit goes to Annie’s mom to ask her about Christ as he had seen pictures of the Savior all over her walls. She refers the missionaries to him. Kit reads the Book of Mormon, prays, and listens to what the missionaries had to say and knows that it is true. He decides to be baptized. He then calls Annie, who is away at college, to tell her about his conversion. She has also found her testimony while away at school. It was neat how they found their own testimonies separate from each other. They were able to rely on themselves when things got hard, because they knew the gospel to be true in their hearts.
Kit is asked to go on a mission and told that his ward would help pay for it. His mission is an amazing experience. The hardships he endured were many, but Kit never lost his faith and always worked hard. It was amazing to see how quickly he picked up the Spanish language. When the author wrote in Spanish, I did not always understand what was being said, because there was not always have a translation with it. At the same time, most of what was being said could be figured out by the context.
It was surprising to see how much the people in Columbia disliked Americans. They would throw their beer, spit, and swear at the white missionaries. Kit’s testimony was truly touching and it was amazing to see it grow through his everyday teaching. It was also enjoyable to see the people he taught and their conversion unfold. It was amazing to read of the power of the Lord through Kit. Kit and his companion taught a man who could not stop smoking. It was the only thing holding him back from being baptized. Kit told him that the power of the Lord would help him to stop craving cigarettes and not smoke again. When Kit and his companion went back to visit him again he had stopped smoking and was able to be baptized.
Through Kit’s mission experiences the book also showed that even though he had faith in the Lord he could not save everyone. Kit was volunteering at a free clinic when a family came in with a child not older than two who was dying. They found out he had a tapeworm that was so large it was choking him to death. The doctor at the clinic told them to take him to the hospital, but they refused because they had no money. Kit tried to think of everything he could do to save the child. He prayed for the boy, paid for a cab for the parents to take their child to the hospital, but later found out the child died anyway. It was almost impossible to read the description of the tapeworm because the event gave such a clear picture it made me sick to my stomach.
Towards the end of his mission, one of the families Kit teaches has as lot of problems. The daughters of the family are all on drugs and have had multiple abortions. Kit tells the Sister in the ward that referred them to him that they are sluts and could not be taught. It was great this Sister put Kit back in his place and reminded him of the tender mercies of the Lord. The missionaries then faithfully taught the family and they repented of their ways and were eventually baptized.
Throughout the book it was easy to closely follow the relationship between Kit and Annie. It was happy in the end when they were able to finally be together. This book was a great example of hard work, dedication, and faith. I was truly touched by his conversion and the experience of his mission. It was refreshing to see that even though faced with temptation, Kit was able to remain a faithful Latter Day Saint. I would recommend this book to anyone.