VISITED BY TWO MISSIONARY SISTERS

Rudi had sent my new address to the branch office in Vienna, and the branch, in turn, forwarded it to two missionary sisters, Ilse Unterdörfer and Elfriede Löhr.a One day the receptionist at the hotel called me and said that two ladies were outside in a car and that they wanted to speak to me. I was puzzled because I knew nothing about them. But I went out to see who they were. Later, I learned that they had served as Witness couriers in Nazi Germany when the work was banned prior to World War II. Even before the war started, they had been captured by the German secret police (Gestapo) and sent to the Lichtenburg concentration camp. Then, during the war, they were transferred to the camp in Ravensbrück, near Berlin.

The sisters were about the age of my mother, so I certainly had respect for them. That is why I did not want to waste their time by having discussions with them and then perhaps after some weeks or months have to tell them that I did not want to continue. So I asked if they could just bring me a list of scriptures on the Catholic doctrine of apostolic succession. I told them that I would take it to the local priest and discuss it with him. I thought that I would then see what is the truth.

At that point, I was ready to study the Bible with Ilse and Elfriede. They taught me much about the true Holy Father in heaven, Jehovah God. (John 17:11) There was as yet no congregation in the area, so the two sisters conducted meetings in the private home of an interested family. Only a few attended. The sisters discussed most of the meeting material between the two of them, since there was no baptized brother present to take the lead. Occasionally, a brother from elsewhere would come and give a public talk in a rented place.

GETTING STARTED IN THE MINISTRY

Ilse and Elfriede began studying the Bible with me in October 1958, and I was baptized three months later in January 1959. Prior to my baptism, I asked them if I might accompany them from house to house to see just how the preaching work was done. (Acts 20:20) After accompanying them for the first time, I asked if I might have my own territory to work. They assigned a village to me, and I would go there by myself and preach on my own from house to house and also make return visits on interested ones.