My wife and I had dinner with a Pioneer couple last night that we've been friends with for a long time. They are both nice people, with the wife having a few dashes of pretentiousness mixed in.
Usually when we are together, they always talk about pioneering, which makes some sense as it's the primary focus of thier lives. However, it has gotten progressively more dominate in conversation over the last couple of years, to the point of being annoying. I'm not sure if they feel like they are encouranging my wife and I to pioneer by bringing it up so much, or if they are just trying to pat themselves on the back by constantly reminding everyone how hard they are working in the ministry. This dynamic has lead to the corrosion of a good friendship and we really aren't together with them much anymore.
Last night, they mentioned at least 8 (maybe more) times their struggle to stay on their hour schedule. Comments were made like this: "I would like to sleep in and make cookies tomorrow, but I need to go in service before the meeting or I won't get my 70 hours this month."
It took all I had to bite my tounge and not blurt out the fact that Jehovah doesn't give a diddly squat if they get their 70 hours or not, because most of it would have been a waste of time driving around and knocking on Not-At-Home doors.
Has anyone else noticed that pioneers complain about their hour requirement regularly?