RNGuzman

No, you are not the only one.

Probably 70-80% of our congregation keeps their cameras turned on for the most part. We have announcements made at the beginning of each meeting to not be distracting if our camera is on. There are a few who are camera shy and don't turn the cameras on at all. But then there are others who live outside of town and don't always have the best Internet connection so their Zoom works better with the camera turned off. When my husband has Audio-Video responsibilities, I log on separately and have to keep the camera turned off so the songs and videos will play properly. I will have it turned on before and after the meetings.

Wow, I hadn't heard about this! My uncle, aunt, and cousin go to that Hall in Greensboro. I will hopefully hear more details about this story later. It's interesting because about 10 years ago something similar happened at our Hall. It was just a few months after the renovation was completed. It was a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon. A driver had a medical emergency and somehow managed to drive off the road, through the neighbor's yard, shed, and wooden fence and hit the side of our brick building. It was about 30 minutes after our meeting had ended and another congregation was coming in for their meeting (It was their CO Visit.) We were at the back of the auditorium at the time it happened. It literally sounded like a bomb went off when the car came through the wall and landed on the right side of the stage. Bricks and furniture went flying, but thankfully no one inside was seriously hurt. Most of the brothers had already left and the rest of us were towards the back of the hall except for two people who were vacuuming nearby. We were all thankful that it didn't happen during the meeting because it would have been much worse. It was by far one of the scariest moments of my life that I will never forget! But repairs were done fairly quickly and now it looks like it never happened.

We don't have breakout rooms either even though a few people have requested them. In our congregation, they are only used for the second school assignments during the midweek meeting and an occasional private meeting. Sometimes a small group stays online on after a midweek meeting and we end up talking for a while. Last night we were on for an hour after the meeting was over. On Sunday we had a "visiting" speaker from Venezuela. It was nice to hear encouraging experiences of how the brothers are doing there, depending on Jehovah and each other.

My husband and I had the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in April and the only side effect we had was a sore arm for a couple of days.

I also wondered why no one was wearing masks until I looked up the number of cases in their country. Per www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries, their population is over 3.5 million people, but there have only been 632 cases total with only 124 of them currently active. No one has died. It's hard to know if the numbers are low due to lack of testing or reporting. But it definitely appears in the video that masks and social distancing are not a priority in that location.

I thought about that too considering that for the most part basic electricity and indoor plumbing in homes has only been around for the past 100 years or so. A lot of things have changed even in the past 20-30 years so I wonder what type of infrastructure and technology will exist at that time. So the majority of the resurrected ones will not know anything about lights, phones, Internet or anything like that.

The introduction is from the Annual Meeting.

We're doing the Louvre tour tomorrow in Spanish also. The group is looking forward to it. I hope it goes well.

Booked a virtual tour for next Saturday morning for the Louvre with a small group from my congregation. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the information!

My mom and my sister want to do an indoor scavenger hunt. We will have 3 separate Zoom groups and lists based on ages; one for families with children/teenagers, one for young adults, and one for the older ones. We are planning to hopefully do this next weekend. Last weekend for my sister and brother-in-law's wedding anniversary, we did a Zoom dinner for a small group and then afterwards invited friends and family to join us after a certain time. It was nice to see friends from different places. We were even able to get my brother-in-law's family in Mexico to connect. There were noise issues at times, but overall it went very well.

I have always heard the expression "the friends" referred to as the congregation in general. I have also heard chairmen use the term to address the group at the beginning of the meeting. This original song also comes to mind. Don't Run So Fast You can walk, but please don’t run. It’s hard to do when you’re having fun. But there’s a reason we don’t race; When you’re with the friends, It’s not the time or place. (CHORUS) Don’t run so fast. Take your time, and make things last. Learn to love the things you do. Just don’t run fast. You’ve got things you have to do— People to serve, who depend on you— But don’t forget why you’re here. Learn to love the friends; Let them know you care.

I've only heard the term "the friends" used here by the brothers and sisters in the English congregation. I am in a Spanish congregation and the term "amigos" is not used that way. It is always "brothers and sisters". In fact, many times during a meeting references to "the brothers (including sisters) and to friends who are visiting us" which refers to Bible students and people attending the meeting for the first time. This has lead to misunderstandings sometimes when the three congregations are together for KH cleaning/maintenance activities.

There's another one today! I saw 1003 just now. Sorry @humblebumblebee!

It's official!!! 😀😀😀 https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/global/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Reach-New-Preaching-Milestone-JWORG-Now-Features-Content-in-1000-Languages/