• Iceland
    2005 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • Studies by Telephone

      It has always been a challenge to preach the good news to people who live in remote areas on this big island. The telephone has been an effective tool to reach and keep in contact with interested people.

      Many have benefited from this way of sharing the good news. Some years ago, a woman named Oddný Helgadóttir visited her son and daughter-in-law, who were studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses. When they related to her what they were learning, she wanted to study the Bible too. However, Oddný lived in a remote area on the northwestern coast of Iceland, more than 200 miles [300 km] from the nearest congregation. When a sister, Gudrún Ólafsdóttir, offered to study with her over the telephone, she happily accepted. After an opening prayer, Oddný readily answered the study questions set out in the book. In her thorough preparation for the study, Oddný wrote out the cited scriptures so that she could read them as soon as they were referred to. Thus, she did not need time to search for scriptures while the study was under way. On one occasion, they studied in Gudrún’s home when Oddný visited that area. They both felt a little uneasy, since this was the first time they studied face-to-face, so Gudrún jokingly suggested that she go into the next room where there was another phone!

      When Oddný began to understand the truth, she started witnessing to her husband, Jón. When he showed interest, she was not sure that it was fitting for her to conduct a study with him. She learned that she could conduct the study but that it would be appropriate for her to wear a head covering while conducting. Besides studying with her husband, she also witnessed to neighbors. Next, she expressed her desire to be baptized. Gudrún arranged for her to go over the questions in the book Organized to Accomplish Our Ministry on the telephone with an elder, to see whether she was qualified. It was obvious that she was except for one thing: She had not yet formally resigned from the church.

      About one week later, Oddný phoned Gudrún to tell her that she had now resigned from the church. Her husband had done the same. This was a big decision for him, since he had been the chairman of the local parish council. Later, Oddný was baptized at a circuit assembly. The assembly was a pleasant experience for her as she had met with a small group of Witnesses only once before that. In an interview on the assembly program, she was asked if it was difficult to be so isolated. She answered that she never felt alone, since she knew that Jehovah is also present on the northwestern coast of Iceland. Then she added that she was sorry her husband could not attend the assembly but that he had assured her that he would come when he was ready to be baptized. He kept his promise! Soon they moved to a more populated area so that they could attend meetings regularly.