In 1958, our circuit overseer recommended that we move to serve as special pioneers in Sodankylä, Lapland. At that time, there was only one Witness, a sister, in that area. She learned the truth in an interesting way. Her son was on a class trip to Helsinki, the capital of Finland. As the group was walking through the city, an elderly sister handed an issue of The Watchtower to the boy, who was last in line, and asked him to give it to his mother. The boy did so, and the mother immediately recognized the ring of truth.

We rented a room located above a sawmill. We held meetings there. At first, the only ones who attended were the two of us and the local sister and her daughter. We read the study material together. Later, a man who had studied the Bible with the Witnesses came to work at the sawmill. He and his family started to associate with our group. In time, both he and his wife were baptized. This brother took the lead in our meetings. In addition, some other men who were working at the mill began to attend the meetings and embraced Bible truth. A couple of years later, our group had grown to such an extent that a congregation was formed.

We had many exciting experiences. One day, the clock in the bus station was five minutes ahead, so we missed our bus. We decided to take another bus to a different village. We had never worked in that area before. At the first house, we met a young woman who said, “Here you girls are, just as I expected.” We had been conducting a Bible study with her sister. The young woman had asked her sister to arrange for us to visit on that very day. However, we never got this message. A Bible study was started with her and her relatives who lived in a neighboring house. Not long thereafter, we combined these studies into one study with an attendance of some one dozen people. Since then, many in this family have become Jehovah’s Witnesses.