By Sheryl Bogolin    Email sbogolin@hotmail.com

The first congregational meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses that I attended with my family was held in the basement of a home filled with many, many chairs. Although I was only 10 years old, I found it to be rather intriguing. The young woman I sat next to raised her hand and answered a question from the Watchtower magazine. I whispered to her, “Do it again.” She did. Thus began my complete immersion into the religion known as Jehovah's Witnesses.

My father was the first one in our family to pursue an interest in the religion, probably because his older brother was already one of Jehovah's Witnesses. My mother agreed to a home Bible study only to prove the Witnesses wrong. We four kids were dragged in from our playtime outside and reluctantly sat in on the weekly study, although the discussions were often beyond our understanding and sometimes we nodded off.

But I must have gotten something out of those studies. Because I began talking with my friends about Bible topics on a regular basis. In fact, I wrote a term paper in 8th grade entitled: “Are You Afraid of Hell?” That caused quite a stir among my classmates.

It was also when I was about 13 years old that I got into a debate with a householder, who obviously knew more about the Bible than I did. Finally, in frustration, I said: “Well, we might not get everything right, but at least we're out here preaching!”

All six of us in the family were baptized within a couple years of each other. My baptism date was April 26, 1958. I was not quite 13 years of age. As my whole family was quite outgoing and gregarious, it was almost easy for us to knock on doors and start up conversations with people about the Bible.

My sister and I both started regular pioneering as soon as we graduated from High School in the early '60s. In view of the fact that I would have made the eighth regular pioneer in our home congregation, we decided to go where the “need was greater”. The Circuit Servant recommended that we assist a congregation in Illinois about 30 miles away from our childhood home.

We initially lived with a dear Witness family of five, which soon became six. So we found an apartment and invited two sisters from our original congregation to live and pioneer with us. And help us with expenses! We jokingly called ourselves 'Jephthah's Daughters'. (Because we figured we might all remain single.) We had good times together. Though it was necessary to count our pennies, I never felt like we were poor.

Back in the early '60's, I think about 75% of the householders in our territory actually were at home and would answer their door. Most were religious and willing to talk to us. Many were anxious to defend their own religious beliefs. As were we! We took our ministry very seriously. We each had a few regular Bible studies. We used either the “Good News” booklet or the “Let God Be True” book. In addition, I tried to include a 5-10 minute segment at the end of each study which was nicknamed “DITTO”.--.Direct Interest To The Organization.

Within the congregation, we were also busy. Since our new congregation was small with a limited number of qualified brothers, both my sister and I were assigned to fill positions of “servants”, such as the “Territory Servant”. We even had to conduct the Congregation Book Study sometimes although a baptized brother was present. That was a little uncomfortable.

In 1966, my sister and I applied for the special pioneer work and were assigned to a small congregation in Wisconsin. About that same time my parents sold their house and bakery and moved to Minnesota as pioneers. Later they entered the Circuit work. With the last name of Sovereign. they fit right in.

Our congregation in Wisconsin was also small, about 35 publishers. As special pioneers, we spent 150 hours a month in the field service and each received $50 a month from the Society, which had to cover rent, food,