Question About Letter Writing

[Lori]

 

How long should a letter be held at the Kingdom Hall before it is given to the sister or brother whose name is on the envelope from an interested householder?   

 

 

[LeslieDean]

Why would it be held at all?

[carlos]

Lori, there are no instructions about that. Logic dictates that it should be given as soon as possible.

On the other hand, usually there is not a brother assigned to check the mailbox. So some time might pass since someone has the idea of checking it, finds the letter, finds it's for a sister from another congregation and finds someone to hand it over to her. It's easy to see how any of those steps might take more time than desirable.

[Eejay]

3 hours ago, Lori said:

How long should a letter be held at the Kingdom Hall

Mailbox stories.

Where I come from, the Secretary always checks the mailbox....now.

There might well be utility bills if there is no central arrangement and that includes cut-off warnings!. Also, in 2021 an interested person wrote asking for a study. I got the letter after 4 weeks and that person is now an unbaptised publisher. Also, a letter that was written to me personally, I received nearly 3 months after posting. It had also been opened. I complained. There has also been letters from apostates and even pornography. Good that now, the Secretary has the sense to check the post and mail gets into the appropriate hands (or the trash can) by following meeting latest.

[booboo]

In our congregation the returned letters are put on a counter top in the library.  Responsibility of the individual publisher to sort through to see if any are their letters. Works well

[TheKid23]

So we share the Kingdom Hall with another Cong and they normally empty the mail box. If there’s any mail for someone who’s not in their Cong they generally leave in on the donation box at the end of their meeting and 1 of our elders looks to see who’s it’s addresses to. 

We’ve had several abusive/apostate letters (including apostate literature) sent so our Service Overseer or another elder usually checks to see if it’s ok.
 

If it’s a nice letter or someone who wants to know more it’s given to the publisher ASAP so they can follow up with the interest. 

 

In the cases where there is apostate stuff it’s obviously destroyed, not sure if the publisher is told in that case- I was when it happened to me but I was very close to the Service Overseer at the time and was there when he opened it 😅
 

If it’s just abusive or contains profanity & the address is known the SO puts it down as a Do Not Call on the appropriate map, and depending on the publisher they’ll be told they had a reply, but not necessarily have the letter given to them. 

[dljbsp]

I am the person that gets the mail in my congregation. I have always called the person directly to tell them that they have mail and ask them how they would like it delivered.

I have repackaged and send it to them in the mail. I have given it to them at the kingdom hall, I have with their permission, opened it and read it to them. And I've also with their permission opened it, scanned it and sent it to them in an email. In the US, it is illegal to open another persons mail, without their permission. (Unless they are jail, then all the mail is examined going in and going out.)

 

How the mail is handled in each congregation can be different though.

If you've got another meaning in your question, Lori, that we haven't answered, let us know..

 

Edited Friday at 05:08 PM by dljbsp

[TheKid23]

2 hours ago, Eejay said:

apostates

We once had an apostate book delivered during a maintenance day at the Kingdom Hall,  it had been planned to have a bonfire later that afternoon- guess what we used to start the fire….. 

[Shawnster]

On 8/15/2025 at 8:04 AM, LeslieDean said:

Why would it be held at all?

 

I use the KH address for the return address on letters I've written and I encourage every publisher to do likewise (if permitted). 

 

There are too many crazy people out there. I know a sister who wrote a letter during Covid who used her return address. The irate householder took the letter, drove to the sister's home, and stuck a negative response letter under the sister's windshield wiper of her car. 

[TheKid23]

16 hours ago, Shawnster said:

 

I use the KH address for the return address on letters I've written and I encourage every publisher to do likewise (if permitted). 

 

There are too many crazy people out there. I know a sister who wrote a letter during Covid who used her return address. The irate householder took the letter, drove to the sister's home, and stuck a negative response letter under the sister's windshield wiper of her car. 

Yes I do always put the KH address now. Once someone drove 15 minutes from their house to mine to hand deliver a very abusive letter! Fortunately I wasn’t home at the time so found it at my front door rather than having to speak to the person. 

[Shawnster]

This is how we sort the return mail.  Hanging inside the coat room.

 

3 congregations. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Shawnster