by RULES & REGULATIONS 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I wonder if it just happened to be the right person to influence us?
I wonder if it was anyone else if we would have joined?..It seems to usually be a family member..I wonder if any just started studying with someone coming door to door? (without already having any family members that were JW's?)
Snoozy...who did study with someone at the door but only because my hubby and JW MIL were witnesses and her stepfather..(Stepgrandfather to hubby) I left ..they stayed..
Snoozy wrote: I wonder if any just started studying with someone coming door to door? (without already having any family members that were JW's?)
The catalyst for getting my parents to study was rooming for the 1969 international convention in New York City. One of my dad's employee's was a JW and asked if he would like to put up a family for a week. Long - but fun - story cut short, it was respect shown by our actual guests that got my parents to study a few months later. (Father forbade them from speaking about their religion to him, my mom, or us kids. They complied and my parents were 'won without a word'.)
As far as someone coming door to door, my mom's first time out in service she placed a Truth Book with a woman at the door and started a study on that first visit. Shortly after that, my dad started studying with the husband. The son in that family is currently serving in Brooklyn Bethel.
A girl in my old congregation starting studying with a classmate while in high school. The study ended up marrying the original witness' 'boyfriend'. He later became an elder.
Other than my family and the ones I mentioned above, I don't know too many others who came in 'cold'.
-Aude.
Snoozy wrote: I wonder if any just started studying with someone coming door to door? (without already having any family members that were JW's?)
The catalyst for getting my parents to study was rooming work for the 1969 international convention in New York City. One of my dad's employee's was a JW and asked if he would like to put up a family for a week. Long - but fun - story cut short, it was respect shown by our actual guests that got my parents to study a few months later. (Father forbade them from speaking about their religion to him, my mom, or us kids. They complied and my parents were 'won without a word'.)
As far as someone coming door to door, my mom's first time out in service she placed a Truth Book with a woman at the door and started a study on that first visit. Shortly after that, my dad started studying with the husband. The son in that family is currently serving in Brooklyn Bethel.
A girl in my old congregation starting studying with a classmate while in high school. The study ended up marrying the original witness' 'boyfriend'. He later became an elder.
Other than my family and the ones I mentioned above, I don't know too many others who came in 'cold'.
-Aude.
It's my impression that when you look around any given Kingdom Hall most are there because of someone in the family. Most are born-ins. Few came in completely on their own.
My great geat grandmother, Nana, in the 40's I think, studied with the witnesses, but never got baptised. She quit studying, I don't know why, (not insane I suppose!)
Years later my great Aunt Toots!, a witness for 30 years, Nana's daughter, studied and became a witness, after Nana's death. Converted from Catholicism
Then years after that I studied and became a witness. My only contact with witnesses was my Aunt Toots and one time to clean the fairgrounds with heaps of other witnesses when I was about eleven in Springfield IL before a District Convention. I Converted from Catholicism
Thirteen years or so after that, my mom, who cared for my Aunt Toots until she died, studied and got baptised in 2000 or 2001, can't remember. Converted from Catholicism.
My family was deeply Catholic. My youngest brother was an alter boy and went to Catholic school. We went to Mass nearly every Sunday, and my stepdad and Mom gave generously to the Catholic Church, while raising four kids.
edited to add: I was found door to door, the initial visit lasted about an hour and I agreed to a bible study and THEN found out they were witnesses, I said to the lady at the door, who later I studied with for about two years, I said you could have told me any religion but Jehovah's Witnesses!! I already knew they did not celebrate holidays and that was about it. And my Mom made fun of her for being a JW............ha, now she is one.
my brother in laws wife
My grandparents hooked after their oldest child died of a contagious disease of the time. Promise that resurrection.
My mother used to argue doctrine with them at the door in the 1970's and soon got sucked in. I was assimilated in 1983. I left in 2003, and mom died in 2006. No more JWs left in my family.
W
purps:
clean the fairgrounds with heaps of other witnesses when I was about eleven in Springfield IL before a District Convention.
I remember when I was a kid doing pre-convention worksetting up at the racetrack at the old fairgrounds in Springfield. I remember very hot, muggy midwest summers of the convention there. with lots of horseflies.
My mom was the first to be studied with in 1970.. perfect storm: dad away from the apartment for a month at a time serving in military nearby, two of us kids under 4, mom bored out of her mind and only knows the immediate neighbors.... lives a block from the KH...special pioneer couple come a knockin..... oh...and it was in Alaska....so she was really really bored...and had 5 and 6 hour studies couple times a week. Dad came in after that and left the military 3 years early (1975 ya know..... read that 3 years short of a military pension.... dumbass). Probably saved a marriage that would have ended if dad had finished his next (and last tour).
Dad died "faithful", mom retired now and "pioneers" (without actually signing up for it).... its her social world I guess.
My 2 younger brothers never got dunked...lucky them... it only took me a couple decades to figure it out.
Snakes ()
dad about 1964, mum baptized in 67 after I was born, the JW is still alive who studied with him
