From Montchanin, in east-central France, comes the following report: “My parents died when I was thirteen. A Catholic sisterhood took me in. Years went by, and I decided to undertake the novitiate [with a view to becoming a nun]. I spent three years in a convent in India, where I took my temporary vows. Next I was sent to the Seychelles islands, then to Ireland, and finally to France, near Carcassonne. I was now twenty-five, and the time had come for me to take my perpetual vows. But, disliking the heavy, hypocritical atmosphere of the convents, I refused. My mother superior put me out to service with a French family, who gave me much work but little pay. It was then that I met my future husband. He spoke to me about Bible truth. In spite of all my religious education, I had never heard of God’s personal name​—Jehovah. . . . I thought that this man who someday would become my husband was mad, but he remained calm. This made me think, so I accepted a Bible study with the help of the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. I asked many questions. This little book taught me more about the Bible than did all the learning I had received during the thirteen years I had spent in various convents. My wish now is that many nuns might hear the wonderful good news of the Kingdom and, like me, become real ‘sisters’ who know their God.”

For instance, in a mountainous region of eastern France there was a couple with five children: three sons and two daughters. The husband often came home drunk, and the three sons wore long hair and eccentric dress, took girls out at night and would come home in the wee hours of the morning. One day, the eldest son subscribed for the Awake! magazine offered to him by a Witness at work. He became interested in the Bible, and soon he and his two brothers were studying the Scriptures with the help of a Witness. Within three months they had completed the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life and went on to study deeper Bible truths.

As the study progressed, their hair got shorter, their clothes became more pleasing and their conduct improved. Noticing this, the father, the mother and the two daughters joined in the study. The marked improvement in their family life so impressed another family of seven that these too began studying the Bible. The youngest son of the first family succeeded in arousing the interest of one of his schoolteachers, who also consented to study the Bible. Thus, within a year, fifteen persons dedicated their lives to Jehovah God and were baptized. Several of the sons and daughters of these two families are now full-time proclaimers of the Good News.