Magaly Gonzalez is a junior at FHS who has been a part of Jehovah’s Witnesses since birth. Her father was told about the church first at his workplace, but then also when Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on their door.

“My parent raised me in the church so I have been a witness my whole life and I plan to be one until I die,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez enjoys being a part of the church but the thing she enjoys most is the diversity that her church holds. 

“What I love about being a Witness is we all come from different ethnic and language backgrounds and we are all united by common goals. We want to honor Jehovah,” Gonzalez said. “I love the family we have. We can go to any part of the world and feel at home because we have brothers and sisters everywhere.”

As much as Gonzalez loves her church and community she faces some hurtful misconceptions about being a Jehovah’s Witness.

“Many people believe that we let our children and family die because we don’t accept any blood transfusions. But in reality, surgeons regularly perform complex procedures such as transplants without the use of blood transfusions,” Gonzalez said. “Many that do not receive blood transfusions do well or even better than those who do get transfusions. But no one can say for a fact that a patient will live or die due to them refusing blood or accepting it.”

Gonzalez finds comfort in her Bible and her community inside her church. She aims to live out her beliefs despite adversity.

“We take to heart the scripture of Colossians 3:12 which says ‘Clothe yourselves in tender affections of compassion, kindness, humility, mildness, and patience.’ When we show these qualities others can be drawn to God by the humility and all that stuff shown by his people.”