Have you ever ran into an old acquaintance while you were both witnesees?

[Ostria]

It sounds like a weird question but let me explain with a story. So had our 2024 convention this weekend. While roaming around the arena before the convention, i see someone that looked familiar. I ignored it then saw her again in another area 30 minutes later, it turns out it was a friend of mine from high school! I havent seen her since 2007 (we did have a small encounter in 2012 when she got a sub from the subway i was working at but that was just a hi/bye thing so im not counting it). I learned she was always a witness where i had just started last year. We exchanged numbers and did some catching up. It was a wild ride. 

 

So have you ever ran into someone at a convention or somethingbyou havent seen in a while after you or they became a witness and had that weird gushy feeling 😍.

 

Ngl i was hoping id run into someone i knew from school or something, i just never expected it to be one of the few people from school that never harmed me lol. She was always nice to me, but after my freshman year i ran off to hang out with other 'friends' and kinda just had her as a casual hi/bye type thing. I dont remember if she ever tried to witness to me, though chances are i probably asked her birthday and she probably responded with being a witness and i probably said 'thats stupid' or something similar so she probably never tried after that. Ngl i wish i had stayed close with her friend wise instead of running off with the fake friends i thought i had. My life would have been so different.

[Tortuga]

Yes, several years ago I saw someone that I use to work with in the parking lot of the Kingdom Hall. There are two KH on the same lot, one Spanish, one English. We had worked together several times at the same refinery but he carpooled with a very devote Morman, and I don't remember talking to him about Jehovah. The day we saw each other at the KH parking lot I discovered that he was an elder and he and his wife were pioneers in another town. He happened to be visiting the Spanish congregation that day. It was a happy day.

[careful]

 years ago my sister and i were at a convention and we saw a guy we had gone to high school with...Now he was a witness!!!  He was with his wife and told us..."You mean you were  witnesses back then??!!  If you had witnessed to me i would have found the truth much sooner."  I will never forget how awful i felt when he said that...Honestly he was cute and i was embarrased.

[hatcheckgirl]

Mine is reverse. I wasn't very nice to the witness girls at school, particularly towards those “weird twins” who didn’t think we were good enough to hang around. I didn’t taunt them or anything, but I wasn’t exactly kind and friendly.

 

Then when I was 16, mum got the truth. We eventually went to a circuit assembly where I met them, and their eyes nearly popped out at seeing me there. “You! I never would have thought you would be a witness!” No, they had never witnessed to anyone either. I think they were having issues because their father was very strict (and maybe not a witness).

 

Please try not to say that if you ever see a former acquaintance in the truth now 🤣

[Tortuga]

5 hours ago, careful said:

 "If you had witnessed to me i would have found the truth much sooner."  I will never forget how awful i felt when he said that...

Just think how many times we might hear that during the resurrection.

[Mike047]

I recall meeting someone from school who had been a prefect (one of the boys who supposedly oversees other boys, and seeks to keep them inline with school rules). Then I discover that he is baptised brother. We were equally surprised to see each other, as I think the person we each knew before wasn't that great. On meeting up we made friends immediately and, although that was some 65 years ago, we have both continued serving Jehovah. 

[Ishaya]

It's a nice experience Bro Erin,

When I was in secondary school(high school),there was a girl who was a witnesses,she was my junior,

When I came to my current congregation after about 10 yrs I found out that it's her family congregation where she grew up, and one of the Elders who has been my very close friend is actually her father.

 

I felt very encouraged,

 

Witnesses are actually very many now, everywhere you go the person sitting just next to you is very likely a Jehovah's witness.

[Old]

Not in scho0l, more work related.

I was supervisor on a small shopping center construction project near Seattle WA.

Getting our building lot prepped made cutting into a dirt bank just short of the property line. The owner of the adjacent property had been friendly and had accepted several hundred dollars of our surplus building materials as a gift.

In doing the excavation several big roots of a Douglas Fir were severed. We had noticed someone taking pictures of the severed root stock, making diagrams on paper. When asked we were told he was an arborist checking to see if the fir tree, 6 ft away, would survive. We had had an arborist give us an OK before we started digging. Within a week we were served papers claiming damages amounting to Tens of thousands of dollars for "Killing a historical landmark tree." 

No more was said as we proceeded to the court date. He had his experts, we had ours. forward two months to our District Convention in the Tacoma Dome.

My wife and I were seated at the front of the second level just above an entrance. Who did I see come in? You guessed it the neighbor and plaintiff.

I went down and greeted him with the weak statement "Hi Monte, I didn't know you were a Witness". We shook hands and he mumbled a weak greeting and excused himself and said he needed to find his wife.

Almost end of story. 

I knew what congregation he would be in so first chance I called the PO in Renton. It turns out his wife was a JW but he mostly was a long time meeting attender.

Oh, the lawsuit was cancelled by the Plaintiff the following day. My office was curious about how I had brought this about. Didn't say anything.