What a beautiful site! This is David and Kathleen Paris taken last week at the Oakland Temple Visitors' Center. What an even more wonderful story.

It begins 10 years ago when David walked into his first Church Meeting at the Central Yard Chapel at Soledad Prison. He had been invited by Andre(Richard) Bridgeforth who, according to David, was his 'Road Dog' in Prison jargon. I suppose this could be compared to missionary companions in a very loose sense of the word, very loose. David, by his own admission, was a dark angry man doing half of a 32 year sentence. Conducting the meeting was Art Romero. Within 3 weeks David was converted by the spirit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At his original sentencing, he had the premonition that he would be freed 10 years into his term. What he later expressed was that his premonition had come true, but in a totally different way. At the time of his conversion, he noticed on his calendar that 10 years had elapsed since he had been sentenced! He was set free, spiritually, but remained in prison for the next 6 years. Art informed him that Church policy prohibited an inmate from being baptized and in fact had to be off parole before the ordinance could be performed, thus requiring Dave to wait approximately 9 years. According to Art, Dave was ok with that and became a stalwart at the meetings for the next 6 years. About 3 years ago Dave was paroled to the Redding area where he immediately contacted the Mission President and local Bishop. Through much love and fellowship, all the time with a GPS ankle bracelet on, Dave obtained permission from the First Presidency to be baptized in July of this year prior to his parole release date. Art and Barbara Romero and 'Dez' and Sue Wilson drove to Redding and Art had the privilege of baptizing Dave into the Church. Brother Wilson who is a counselor in the Mission Presidency, preceded me in accompanying Art to the prison for four years, in which he had gotten to know Dave on a personal basis. I have also known 'Dez' for many years as he has an excellent baritone solo voice. He is the former Santa Cruz Stake President, and in 1997 sang with us, the Valparaiso Singers, at a concert performed in the Felton Chapel of the Santa Cruz Stake.

Dave had embraced the church fully and the local church members embraced him. He met, and married Kathleen, and was working and doing everything right. But wait, another test was to come. His ankle bracelet was malfunctioning, so in August he went into the parole office to have it repaired. His regular parole officer was on vacation, and the replacement informed Dave after looking at his 'electronic' data, that he had violated parole!!!! He was immediately sent to Susanville Prison without passing go or collecting $200. Many attempts to free him failed, and he served the remainder of his parole time plus 2 months until early last week when he was released from Susanville. On Friday morning last, His new parole officer called him at 8am and told Dave that his ankle bracelet had been deactivated and that he could cut it off, not his ankle, and that he was now truly free. Within 3 hours, Dave and Kathleen were on their way to the Oakland Temple, where the Wilson's were there serving. They started at the Visitors Center (see above picture) and wound up performing Baptisms for the Dead. The Wilson's hosted Dave and Kathleen at their home for the evening, then on Saturday we all met at Phil's Fish House in Moss Landing for a 'Freedom Feast'. Invited were all who had a part in the Paris Story, Art and Barbara Romero and The Wilson's. Also invited were those who could appreciate the significance of the occasion and were privileged to be in attendance. Doug and Annie Humble, Jess Romero-daughter, and I. (picture below). We enjoyed a good meal and wonderful fellowship together. Dave's story brought tears to those who were hearing it for the first time. He possesses a truly humble and contrite spirit. His is a success story in every sense of the word, full of faith and testimony born of hard times and overcoming many, many adversities. He has truly repented and the Lord remembers his sins no more. He will yet share his testimony with many who will be blessed as a result of his faith and spiritual demeanor. I for one, received a further witness that the work at the prison is of utmost importance, and that the 'worth of souls' is truly great. Certainly, the Hand of the Lord has been evident in this marvelous ongoing conversion process, and the best is yet to come!!!.