Prison Again

Monday April 29th, 2013

     Early last week I received an email from Chaplain Young stating that Salinas Valley Prison A Yard was 'up and running'.  Finally, after 3 weeks of downtime, we could now have our service.  But wait, just when things are looking up, an early Sunday morning phone call from President Romero revealed that both prisons were on 'fog watch' which means that unless the guards in the surrounding towers can see each other, no inmates are allowed out of their respective 'houses'.  So... we decided to wait one hour and then journey to the prisons and begin our day.  Our arrival was greeted with wonderful sunshine, and it seemed like the 'mists of darkness' had dispersed.  As a Presidency, we had our customary prayer in the North facility parking lot, then split to our respective meetings.  I arrived to the hustle and bustle of inmates being released for yard time but the chapel door was locked and there was no Chaplain Young in site.  I returned to control and obtained the chapel keys and an alarm and returned to the yard thinking Chaplain would be along any minute.  Protestant inmates were beginning to arrive and asking if services were going to be held.  I concurred with the watch commander and it was decided to go ahead with the meetings both Protestant and Mormon.  Though abbreviated, we had our get together with 3 of the five regulars in attendance.  We watched the first talks from  General Conference and enjoyed the spirit thereof.  Chaplain Young never did show and a subsequent lunchtime phone call  revealed that he is in the hospital in Monterey undergoing tests for an undisclosed illness.
      Several 'lost sheep' returned to the fold at Central yard including Mike Anderson and Terry Billingsley.   In fact, Terry provided the impetus for a most wonderful outpouring of the spirit to begin our service.  Terry's 17 year old son Richard (Ricky) was just baptized into the Church and Terry's sister had sent him a copy of the Baptismal program.  Terry proudly shared this program with President Romero who was then inspired to recreate the  program for the benefit of Terry and as it turned out, for the entire congregation.  Many of our attendees are not members and so have no idea what a Baptismal service is, so we took them through a 'vicarious' service if you will.  President asked Brother Campbell and I to share our thoughts on baptism and the Holy Ghost which we did.  Many basic Gospel truths were reiterated and the spirit was felt by all present.  We continued with Conference talks to end the meeting then journeyed to South Yard and watched  Conference with those in attendance there.
     It was a good Sabbath.