A Long Overdue Post

Candy at her first meeting

This is what we see everytime wecome to study. Usually she is sitting by the books.

What's her story?? John has been studying with Joel, Candy's son, for about a two years. During this time, we've gotten to know Candy and she has seen how much John cares for her son. She volunteers as the caretaker of the local chapel that's across from their home. Her mother and grandmother were also caretakers. She spends much time in daily prayers. At certain times of the year, she leads the ladies at the chapel in prayers. In a word, she has been devout.

We've tried a couple of times during the last two years to begin a study with her, but it just didn't seem to work. The first week of this April, we began to study together. After the first study, she began to prepare ahead, including reading all of the scriptures in the material. She felt that it would be good for her to study twice a week. She studied the Divine Name brochure on her own and proved to herself that she should use Jehovah's name. When we showed her Jehovah's name in a Catholic Bible, she was very concerned that no one uses it. She got very quiet and said, "You know, I think someone in the Catholic church is working for the Devil." Each study she has learned something either exciting for her or completely new. By the time we finished the chapters about Jesus, she studied the entire Trinity brochure on her own and reached the Scriptural conclusion that there is no Trinity. She also studied a supplemental article about the use of the cross. She's really disturbed by Constantine!

After two studies, she agreed to attend one morning of a circuit assembly with her son. She stayed for the entire program. She also attended the Memorial. Before the Memorial, John gave her the Greatest Man book to read along with the selected Bible verses. She has now completed that book. She reads the daily text and writes out the secondary scriptures in a notebook along with her thoughts on the text and comment. She has begun to read the Draw Close to Jehovah book. Because of her reading, each time we go, she will say, "I need to talk to you about something." Once, it was about the star that lead the astrologers to Herod. She was deeply moved to know that the star was not from God.

Now, it's been two months of studying twice a week for a 2-4 hours at a time. We begin chapter 9 today. She attended her first meeting at the Kingdom Hall last Tuesday night. Since we gave her the Bearing Witness book and showed her what we were studying, she prepared for the meeting and commented twice! She prepared for and attended the meeting on Sunday, also participating. Her comment in the Watchtower study went something like this, "The best way that we can use our life is to serve Jehovah forever." The public talk was about serving Jehovah and not other gods or 'dungy' idols. She said that she really enjoyed the speaker and that she could see where he was coming from.

She loves flowers and plants, so she gardens quite a bit. She says that she reads, then works in the garden, thinking about what she read, then goes back to read, back and forth all day. She also has no power, so she uses a flashlight to read for much of the night.

Because of her studying, it has encouraged her son and daughter-in-law to study regularly. They have mentioned that the conversations at home have changed drastically. Many evenings are spent discussing what each have learned from the Bible. They are all excited that they are beginning to understand the Bible.