JW to Catholic Conversion Stories

[catholicxjw]

Here is a link to stories of people who have converted from the JWs to the Catholic Church.

www.catholicxjw.com/conversions.html

[marilena]

Here is my story. I was baptized as a Catholic in 1966.
I grew up as a Catholic. I went sporadically in my young
years, and even more sporadically as a teenager. I met and married my 1st husband in 1987. When we were
dating, he told me his parents were JW's. I didn't have a problem with that at the time. I even went to a meeting or 2 with him about 6 months after we were married. I went somewhat sporadically for the next
8 years. In 1995, I started to seriously study with a woman that became a very fine friend to me. We were
practically out on service almost every day for 2 years.
I studued with her for about 1 year. I was baptized in
1996. I really really didn't want to do it, but I felt I owed
it to her, and to my ex parents in law. The man I married
was never a witness. He even told me not to get involved with them, but since his parents practically
hated my family ( we are Catholics ) especially my
mother, ( very devout Catholic ) I mistakenly thought that it would make peace between me and them. It did not. The father of the ex husband ridiculed what he thought was my mothers heritage, and he kept it up
for a few years off and on. The ex brother in law also made fun of what he thought was our heritage. He did it in a public restaraunt! He made a rain dance and made
fun of me. Other past experiences with them included
ridiculing my up bringing, attacking my mother verbally,
taking gifts I hand made for the ex mother in law and
not appreciating the thought, ext ext ext. petty. But it hurt never the less. I suffered alot of humiliation at the hands of that family, and my ex didn't defend me until the marriage was well over. When invited to dinner,
I was treated as an outcast, a thing of ridicule and scorn. All of this because our family is Catholic, and my
mother has darker skin! ( her family is italian and english and irish) So much for brotherly love ! Anyways, the relevent fact is, when Ileft in 1997 my mother welcomed me home with open arms! my whole family did! I celebrated Christmas, went to Church, and made
my mother a Rosary with an old crucifix she had had
since my childhood! ( it was on a black Rosary I had
when I was about 13 ) my mom kept it, and when I came home, she gave it to me, and I was stunned!
I made a Rosary for her, and attached the crucifix to it.
She was teary eyed to say the least! It felt really wonderful to get out of the religion! I went back to my former town about 2 years later to settle the divorce, and my ex friend came up to me and told me she had
went looking for me shortly after I left the religion in 1997. I was astounded to say the least. I told her why I
left, and the funny thing is is, she wasn't surprised!
She begged me to come back, and I refused. I wrote them a letter, and terminated my association with them
for good in 1999. Even when I was a baptized witness,
I celebrated the holidays, birthdays, mothers and fathers day! i never could let go of my lovely Catholic faith! I even sat in the Catholic church once, and felt serene! I never had that experience when I was at the kingdom hall. Only felt unwelcome and out of place.
My family lovingly supported me when I was out, and
because of them, especially my mother, I came back to the Catholic faith, I came home! What a joyous feeling it was and still is! now, my second husband has been converted to the Catholic faith, and is now attending the
RCIA! We met in Germany in 1998, and he came to Canada permanently a year later. He is newly converted and he loves Christ Jesus with all his heart and soul!
God has blessed us richly! Thank God for sites like this!
Thank God! May God the Father bless you all abundantly!

Your sister in Christ Jesus,

Marilena

[evanescence]

Marilena thankyou for sharing your story with us

and welcome

Evanescence

[heretic]

Hi Marilena

What a fantastic story and thanks for sharing. Reading it has lifted my spirit

[serenade4strings]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. My name is Julie. I'm not Catholic yet, but I hope to be starting RCIA soon. Here's my story:

I got baptized into the WTS at about 15 years of age...

I left the Borg because one day I signed onto AOL and somehow my mouse accidentally clicked on the wrong stuff and I inadvertantly opened a chat room called "JWs and Friends". The screen just popped up before my eyes (read: act of God). I came back to that chat room often and eventually I started seeing that a lot of the arguments against JWs made sense.

I read a lot, and after a couple of weeks, I didn't want to go back to KH. I told them that I had serious doubts, I confessed that I was no longer interested and I explained why. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but without anywhere else to turn to I easily became atheist shortly thereafter.

After about 3 years of being atheist I read The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. That Easter I was baptized at a non-denominational church. I tried to figure out how to reconcile the idea of the Bible calling for unity and there being so many denominations. I couldn't find a church to belong to.

However, the Tsunami in the South Pacific really shook my faith and without fellowship and encouragement eventually my belief in Jesus started to become less and less. Plus, I had started taking science classes at school and all this resulted in me falling back into atheism.

I really wanted to believe in God, but I couldn't.

However, even as an "atheist" I would pray. I had been attracted to Catholicism (long story) and so I prayed to God to give me a sign that He indeed existed and that I was down the right path in regards to my curiousity about Catholicism. One night when I was praying really intensly an image of a total solar eclipse popped into my mind....I thought my imagination was producing the image...but the image stayed long enough to make me wonder, was that some sort of message? To my surprise, the next day I open MSN.com (my homepage) to find the exact same image. There was going to be a total solar eclipse on the other side of the world the following day! To me this was God's way of communicating with me His approval of Catholicism.

Since then I've read a lot more about Catholicism and I'm pretty convinced the Catholic church is where I belong.

[NanaR]

Hi friends:

I have started writing my conversion story in installments. The first two "bytes" are posted at

nanaruthann.blogspot.com

I plan on adding to this about once a week.

The blog is publicly viewable, and the public can comment, but it is not listed in the directory.

Take a look if you feel like it :-)

Ruth

[mantim]

Hello,
Just need to tell my story. From birth to age 12 our semi-disfunctional family was affilliated with no particular religion. Then, one saturday morning came a knock at the door and guess who was there. You got it! a J.W. and hence began a 7 year nightmare of forced meetings (4 per week). To make a long story short at age 19 I could no longer believe that God (Jehovah) was going to destroy 99.9% of all people living. In addition to this, it was strongly encouraged that I date solely within the Kingdom Hall. Now, Don't get me wrong, but the pcikins were pretty slim at our local kingdom Hall. Disollusioned, very bitter about the ostracism I recieved as an andolesent, and the hypocritical and still semi-disfunctional family, My twin brother and I boldly refused to attend or believe in J.W. meetings/doctrines. Fast foward to age 23, I became a devout Agnostic and firmly believed that ALL religion is what was wrong with the world. I then married a good Catholic girl, actually agreed to get married in a catholic church. But for the next 24 years I remained a devout Agnostic.
I assure you, the only by-product of Agnostcism is negativity and sarcasym. This resulted in a scorching case of alcoholism. On March 15th of 2005 at about 10 p.m. I came home completely liquored to the gills. My Wife (remember, by Gods grace I married a good Catholic girl) met me in the kitchen, and I swear she asked me for a divorce. Later she said she was attending counceling sessions for living with alcoholic spouses. THAT WAS IT! I could no longer stand my life, the constant negativity, the extreme hurtful sarcasym, and not to mention being slaughtered at the soon to come battle of Armegeddon. In my stupor, I told my long-suffering wife that I was going to join Alcoholics Anonymous. My older Brother (also and xjw and recovering alcoholic) took me to my first meeting. I was introduced to the 12 Step Recovery program. Little did I know that I allowed the Holy Spirit to penetrate my stony, ice cold Heart. Basically the 12 steps entail 1. TRUST GOD 2. CLEAN HOUSE 3. HELP OTHERS. Sounds easy, its not, especially if you are over stuffed with Pride and Self Will. I know, I know when did I become Catholic? Hang on! we'll get to that in a bit. The 4th and 5th Steps of A.A. suggest strongly suggest Self-Examination and Confession. (sound familar?) I became willing to make a brutal to the bone admission of my Resentments, Fears and Remorse. I could"nt imagine, fathom or entertain admitting to another human being the exact nature of my shortcomings (thats sugar coated rhetoric for SINS). So I planned to tell my A.A. sponsor the PG-13 version of my confession. Through prayer I begged god for the courage to be totally Honest with this Confession (5th Step) The text book of Alcoholic Anonymous is nick named the Big Book. I read feverishly on the 'procedures' for the effective confession. When I read these instructions, after each sentence, in italics and in parenthesis if state "DON'T SHRINK BACK'. Early the next morning while getting ready for work, I turned on the shower. While I was waiting for the water to get warm, I was in a high rate of anxiety and dispair about being truthful in my confession (5th step) Then in an audible, pleasant male voice I heard, 'THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE'. Needless to say, I made the most honest, gut renching confession possible. Every dark secret, every nook and cranny of my godless past, every harm I caused others and everytime I failed to forgive others and most of all not trusting in God. It took over 3 hours but when I was through I closed my eyes and bowed my head. I felt my hands shoot straight over my head. I was thinking, my sponsor (confessor) must think I'm a real nut case, but when I opened my eyes my hands never left my lap!
Two weeks later at a regular A.A. meeting I Quoted the Big Book and how it said in italics to 'DON'T SHRINK BACK'. I went home that day and doubled checked my comments I made about this statement in the(A.A) Big Book. To my astonishment for the life of me I could no longer find in parethesis, and in italics, the suggestion of "DON'T SHRINK BACK". Gesthamane size tears and a profound case of goose bumps (Holy Spirit) dropped me to my knees and I prayed for an open heart and an open mind. The peace and solitude that followed (and still prevails) was indescribeble. Agnocism immediately disappeared. I now craved to give thanks to God, yes to go to a Church, but surely not Catholic, as much as I loved my wife (the good Catholic Girl), I , by the intense indoctrination of the j.w's, would not entertain a notion of entering the 'sleeper of Babylon", statue hugging, misguided souls world of Catholicity. Remember my older brother, also an xjw, also a recovered alcoholic? I asked him about his religion. He and his wife are devout Born again Christains. He explained about the upcoming rapture and a select few 'chosen'. My nostrils began to fill with oders of j.w. adventist doctrine. This made me feel squirmy. What? another dooms day scenario? Been there, done that.
Some weeks later about 10 p.m. after my wife went to bed. I picked up a book on the kitchen counter left there months ago by wife's sister, it was called, "SUPRISED BY THE TRUTH' by Patrick Madrid. I thought to myself, 'well, well. another 'Truth' book on the market. I thought it was a j.w. book following their original of "The Truth that leads to Eternal Life". But on closer examination I saw that it was Catholic! HUH?!. I decided to give it a quick thumb through. After 5 hours and 200 pages of reading I threw up against the wall and said in an unbelievable voice, "I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO BECOME A ******* CATHOLIC!!!
My wife was overjoyed when I told her I was joining RCIA. I was recieved in the Church, was baptized, confirmed and first Holy Communion on April 15th, 2006.
I firmly believe that spirituality is the Horse that pulls the cart of Religion. Spirituality is evacuation of your Self-Will and being prayerfully receptive of Gods Will. Practicing the Sacrament of Confession (reconciliation) makes your soul disposed to The Real Presence of Jesus Christ. Jesus is truly present at this sacrament as he was with me during my fight with alcoholism. Today I decrease myself and increase Jesus in me each time I go to Confession. Confession purifies your soul. I go at least every 4-6 weeks. If I wait any longer I get cranky, irritable and gossipy.
My twin brother is being welcomed into the Church this Easter (2008) Please pray for conversion graces for Parents (stil j.w.'s) and my other 4 siblings. Donna, Tom, Sue and Steven. Thanks for listening, Please pray (not say) the Rosary daily, The Devine Chaplet of Mercy. Fill your thoughts of 'Jesus I trust in You". Bye for now.

[NanaR]

mantim,

Welcome to the board!!

What an inspiring story!

I remember the point at which my curious interest in Catholicism became a growing conviction that I MUST become Catholic. I said many times, "Lord, you have GOT to be kidding!". And I had the same reaction as you did to other Christian groups -- I just couldn't "go there", even though now I realize that most of those folks are much closer to the "truth" than the JWs ever were.

The Lord doesn't abandon us. Even when we become JWs, even when we deny him as agnostics (I did that too). He's always there, waiting for us to make room for him in our hearts.

Thank you so much for sharing!!

The peace of our Lord be with you,

Ruth

[mantim]

Ruth.

Thanks for your welcome. I'm new to computer skills, hopefully mine will improve with 'casual surfing'. It sure is refreshing to now be able to chat with other xjw's thru-out the Country about our amazing conversions.
I'm going to brave the Chicago cold (it' one below now) and get to Mass

Peace be with you

[onpatmos]

mantim
Welcome to the board. I am not (yet) a Catholic myself. I enjoyed reading your experience.
onpatmos

[mantim]

onpatmos,
Come on in the waters fine!!!

mantim

[mantim]

HELLO, HELLO, IS ANYONE HOME?

[anne]

Mantim

You are so right about the 'rapture and the chosen few' it is everywhere in the Christian world. The Adventist doctrines . I like what you said about Gethsemene size tears & a profound case of goosebumps (Holy Spirit) I had a similar experience,conviction,

I also came upon WOF teachings............... terrible teachings and they have got many Christians mixed up.

Jesus said 'The poor you will always have'he also said 'do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. .......neither should we blow trumpets.

Mathew 6.The Lord's prayer.... 11 Give us this day our daily bread....
19 Do not lay up for yourselves treaures on earth,where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

25-34 .Do not worry.

We all can help each other.This is what God wants.

Rev: 21 well used Scriptures by us in the WT.What God will do for us.

Not what the health/wealth/prosperity teachers will do................ or claim to do.
They just promote greed. and power.IMO

[curious]

I would be interested in reading more JW to Catholic conversion stories. It helps me sort out my feelings and gives me something to think about. Please post if you have one you'd like to share, and THANK YOU all very much.

[anne]

Hi Curious,

No replies yet? hope someone will.

I am not quite there yet.