Scully

I am torn between two congregations here in Pennsylvania.  The first one is the one we attended our first year even though we were technically not in its territory.  Then we moved and started going where we officially belonged, and we still belong there, and we've been there two years.  But I love some of the people in that first congregation so much that I want to be there too.  And all the meetings are at the same time.  In Arkansas, I could actually go to double meetings sometimes because the two congregations there shared the same hall; hence, no simultaneous meetings.  If I wanted, and I sometimes did, I could go to two Watchtower studies, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Here, you are going on Thursday night or Sunday morning or you are missing.  Well, one of my friends in the first congregation read my Bible post, and she emailed me that for many years she used a Bible she received at her baptism that had the last name she used with her first husband.  About four years ago she reached into the meeting bag she shared with her husband, and she had a new Bible with the last name she shares with him printed on it.  He finally got tired of the other name.
I thought that was a lovely story.  Their last name is not very common in the south, so my daughters and I frequently abbreviate it as Scully.  We reallly had a big adjustment to make moving here.  The first talk I heard in that first congregation was given by Brother Mike Paskowski.  Forgive me if I have spelled that wrong.  I am an English teacher but do not know any rules for the proper nouns in Western PA.  I had a hard time remembering it till he told me "Pass the House Key" was a good mnemonic device. 
My other favorite names from that congregation are Varmecky, Odenthal, Mishler, Rickabaugh, and Katenhusen.  At our first Thursday night meeting, a brother asked for a volunteer to read a scripture and the young brother who read it mispronounced a word.  So the brother conducting corrected him by saying:  "Brother, that word is not leaper; it's leper."  When we were driving home, Carly said I will never read a scripture in this congregation and I said why. 
"Because they will correct you from the platform; that's why."
How could I argue with such logic?  Imagine our surprise and relief when we later discovered that the conductor was speaking to his younger fleshly brother.
Whew.
Of course, I like to think we don't mispronounce any words.  Which makes me check the dictionary sometimes.  Last night our reader and conductor kept saying apostoLICK.  The word is aposTALLick.  But I was too chicken to comment using that word after hearing them.  I thought what if there are two ways to say it and I don't know the PA way?  And what does it matter when the point is our organization is not only unified globally as a worldwide brotherhood but we are also unified with the first century apostolic methods?  And later, I loved the information that our song books are based on David's Psalms.  When "Singing Praises" was released in 1966, the May 15 WT said that there were many new songs based on the spectrum of the Psalms, that we have songs of prophecy and historicity and praise as well as songs of emotion and service. 
No, I was not reading the WT in 1966.  I was four years old.  But I google the WT library a lot for my favorite words just to see what will come up.  Music, songs, all those words are lovely.

So, I am amazed at the new songs, and how many of them have quickly become favorites, and how more than ever there are songs that represent my feelings.  The first few times we did some of them, I could barely sing without crying.  So, of course, I am getting a matching lime green songbook along with that Bible.  I hope to make it through the trials ahead, and if we get to the new world holding onto one cherished possession, well of course I want my daughters by my side, but if there is anything in my hand, it will likely be those two lime-green leather bound volumes.
I have stuff to do for school today, so I bid you adieu for now.