I am going to devote my blog to a little thing called PIONEEEEEEEEEEEER SERVICCCCCCCCCE SCHOOOOOOOOOL!
Now I know a lot of you have gone already and I have only ever heard wonderful things about PSS, but words fail to compare to what a marvelous experience it really is. On the last afternoon of class, someone made the comment about how this is just a fore gleam of what the new world will feel like. And I couldn’t help but agree with the brother. And when people ask me how it was, it’s hard for me to describe just HOW wonderful it actually was, but that really sums it up quite nicely I think. But on with some details:
I was one of 35 students. We had 29 from my circuit NY4; 4 from NY19, and 2 from NY 33-S (which is the Spanish.) We had 8 brothers total (and actually all the 4 from NY19 were brothers!) I only mention this because Brother Rodrigues (pronounced Rod-rix), who is my CO said this was kind of a lot of brothers for a PSS class. My other teacher was the CO from NY19, Brother Nash who knew our dear Becca! It was also nice to have 2 Spanish sisters in my class. (While they go to the Spanish congs, they understand English better) 1 of the sisters I have been friends with since I was like 12 and had just graduated HS. And the other sister was so talkative! She was in my service group and the reason why she moved into the Spanish cong was because her husband got baptized after being opposed to her for 27 years! She raised all 5 of their kids in the truth by herself and she just had such a self-sacrificing attitude about switching into the Spanish cong, even though she needed to relearn another language!
I think that was one of my favorite things about PSS, learning about other Pioneers lives, how they came into the truth, and why they started pioneering. Their was this brother in my class. I don’t know how old he was, but I’m pretty sure he was about my age or maybe a year older. And I guess I just sort of assumed he grew up in the truth because all of the other young people in my class had. But he didn’t. He was baptized for 3 years and the month after he got dunked started to cont Aux pioneer up until last Sept when he turned full time. And he is the ONLY ONE in the truth in his family. He lives with his mom and sister who aren’t too keen on him being a witness and as if THAT wouldn’t be hard enough on someone, he’s in the full time service. I thought that was really admirable. Just even his whole view towards the truth was refreshing. He was so appreciative. He said how “Jehovah must have seen something good in him.”
We also had the Pioneers who have been in fulltime service for 20 years join our class. Some of them were in PSS with my grandma in 1985!! I got to see their picture! Haha! Their was this certain sister who started telling us about why she started pioneering 20 years ago. Her story kind of made me well up a bit. But she came into the truth after she was married and then when she was in the truth for about 12 years, her husband said he wanted a divorce. (It had something to do with drugs and another woman, and not because she was a witness) And this sister just went on to describe how hurt she was and how broke her heart was when her husband left her. And then how one day she was having an emotional break down in her bathroom and how she prayed that Jehovah take away the hurt and the pain because she couldn’t go on feeling like that. And Jehovah did. She said how he took all the heartache away and how she could actually feel Him helping her. She said after that “I felt the least I could do was devote my life to full time service because of what He had done for me.”
Some of my favorite units in the book, “Shining As Illuminators in the World”, were on: the role of the Christian Woman, the benefits of the New World Translation Reference Bible, enduring under hardship, prayer and showing dependence on Jehovah, being humble, strengthen your Christian conscience, and imitating Jesus in the way he was kind to others. In the lesson where they discuss the need to imitate Jesus and his kindness they had this following experience:
“Two brothers in Russia were preaching from house to house one morning. A woman listened to their introduction and then excused herself. She returned with a pot of borscht, or beet soup, and threw this on the brothers, adding angrily: “Do not visit me again.” The brothers returned home to change their clothes and then continued their activity. Later that day, they went to the market in order to purchase the ingredients needed for a good borscht. That evening they visited the woman again. They told her that this time they came, not to preach, but to compensate her for the loss of her family’s food, knowing that the soup she had wasted might have been the entire family meal. Then they handed her the foodstuffs they had purchased. The woman was so surprised that she invited the brothers in to talk. In time, a bible study was started with this woman.”
When I read that (I typed it straight from the book) my jaw literarily DROPPED! What a fine example those two Russian brothers showed in being kind even when the householder was obstinate!! So whenever you feel like being mean to anyone, just REMEMBER THE BORSCHT!!
I really do have a lot more I could tell. But I shall stop now and I hope that everyone has enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed sharing it!!!
(Oh and since I know ya’ll are probably wondering…. Yes, I along with most of my classmates cried on the last day.)
And in keeping with this weeks precedent, Here is a little quiz about Lyssa:
1> How did I hurt my wrist this summer?
a) a big oil spill
b) a car accident
c) too much text messaging
2> My fave color is
a) pink
b) blue
c) green
3> What kind of milk do I drink?
a) skim
b) whole
c) soy
4> My fave thing to drink is
a) water
b) iced tea
c) hot tea
5> I was baptized on
a) June 16, 2001
b) October 2, 2001
c) August 24, 2001
Thank You to All for taking the Time to Read and Comment on this Blog! HAVE A SUNSHINEY DAY! J J J
Some of Lyssa’s Music Picks: (I tried to pick songs that I love but also that I’ve never seen posted on Caught in a Thought before)
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