Share Your Tales of Annoying Car Group Advice

DarioKehl

Ohhhh.... do I ever have loads of these stories! I pioneered in the mid-90's (mostly out of guilt and fear and hope to pacify my parents before dropping the "I wanna go to college" bombshell on them, but I digress...) and I gotta tell ya, it was the most frustrating 2 years of my life! At that time, there were over 20 of us as many my age recently graduated high school to "join the ranks" (as the CO at the time said). So, our small congo was the envy of the circuit because of our large numbers. But behind the scenes was a total nightmare. There was constant bickering, back stabbing, rumor spreading, gossip, time wasting, eating...lots and lots of sitting in the back of a minivan and eating, money wasting--and that was just between me and the girls my age! This doesn't even include the awkward generation bias that we collectively endured from the older die-hards, pio-lifers and independently wealthy elder pios who had all the time and resources one could wish for to "shine as illuminati...errr, I mean, illuminators."

But here's what I recall vividly. Even in attempts to make small talk--innocent chit-chat--with some of the older, stuffy, opinionated pios, I'd be shot down, corrected, admonished and force-fed unsolicited opinoins and advice. One day, I was with an older sister and a younger full-time pio elder (who used to be cool, but sucked after receiving his badge of honor) and you could hear a pin drop. This older sister hated my living guts. I was a goody-2-shoes back then, model JW. Never figured out why she was so cold and I always took it personally. So, in an attempt to break the uncomfortable silence, I thought of a topic that maybe they'd find interesing... birdfeeding. *sigh* Ok, here goes:

Dario: "Well, mom just put out a bunch of bird feeders outside our patio door. I had no idea how interesting it would be to sit in the family room and see all these surprising visitors come by! And the cat loves it!" (spoken to a carload of cat-lovers)

[now...i'm thinking to myself, "SCORE ONE FOR DARIO! i found a topic of interest while we drive to the terrible-tory! what might they say? will they ask me what kind of bird feeders? maybe... will they ask me what kinds of birds we've seen so far? perhaps! i even learned a few of them, i'll be able to hang in the convo for a little while and even if they take over, at least i initiated a nice chat! or...will they ask me about my kitty cat? i hope so. common ground. we all love kitties and i can go on and on about the hilarious antics of mine. ok... sweet!"]

Young Elder Pio: "WELLLLL... you know... you shouldn't really set bird feeders out in the winter because the birds will get lazy."

SILENCE.

I have so many more, but I wanna see y'alls'

White Dove

Pioneer for very long and that should be enough to sicken one against the troof.

One of my pioneer experiences: I was a single parent with 2 little kids, one was a baby. I had no money to buy any clothes, so my grandmother made me dresses based on what I like.

Well, my clothes seemed to last a long time. They lasted too long. That was good. At least I had clothes to wear that looked neat and presentable.

Enter longtime rich pioneer sister dressed in up to the minute fashion: "You should buy a couple of wool skirts and a few blouses so you can change them out and have a variety of things to wear."

That really hurt badly. I could barely afford baby formula, let alone expensive wool skirts and blouses. It was very embarrassing.

Another one admonished me to get a job. Yeah, like McD's would pay only enough for the baby sitter. There was no advantage to it. Hubby was working at the time but not making much.

It was just humiliating to have to endure service with the same old crows day in and day out. Thought I was doing what was expected of me.

There was everything you mentioned in your post present in my pioneer experience. It cured me of ever wanting to go out again.

DarioKehl

The old wealthy full-timer elder was very stern. No kids, just him and his pretentious wife. He xeroxed a copy of an old, OLD KM article about puncuality on pink paper and cut them into coupon-sized strips. If anyone walked in after the opening prayer during the service week, he'd stop conducting, WALK to his briefcase, grab a pink slip and hand it to the late person infront of everyone. This went on for several months until the other elders put a stop to it. The pioneers didn't squeal... it was a publisher who met with the group on morning who was thoroughly humiliated. And no, I'm not making this up. (i'm actually afraid that this post will reveal my identity now)

baltar447

What a douchebag

Awen

I tried pioneering a few times but got so sick of younger Brothers who had just gotten their license telling me how to drive or that only Kingdom Melodies could be played while out in FS (classical music is what I played it was frowned upon). I had the same brother who tried to tell me how to drive also call me a glutton for ordering 6 Big Macs and eating three of them in one sitting. I'm 6' tall and weigh 225 lbs and have a big appetite. I told him he was a judgmental prick who needed to mind his own business and look up the definition of a glutton. A glutton is someone who eats for the sake of eating and practices it. I told the brother I had not eaten since the previous afternoon and to let him try going so long without eating and see how hungry he got. There is nothing wrong with having a big meal every now and again. His attitude showed a lack of compassion towards the plight of others, especially considering he didn't know how long I had been without food.

Oddly enough this brother was seen as really dumb and yet got into Bethel the first time he applied. Go figure.

DarioKehl

The "pink slip" elder sent a poor pioneer home one morning because her clothes "smelled like mildew" and his wife's allergies were acting up. This sister was my age, from a very poor and troubled family and was horrified. She began to cry and he put his hand on her shoulder and said, "If a friend won't tell you, who will?" She's out now. He's a C.O.

crapola

I had one chew me out for not wanting to go to the doors by myself. She thought it was cowardly. We are both out now.

Jadeen

A friend of mine was telling me about how when her daughter was little, she came back from service with the pioneers and never wanted to go out in service again. She said that all they did was "talk mean" about others in the congo.

NewChapter

I used to get irritated at the phrase "support the pioneers". They said it all the time in my cong. If you weren't a pioneer, and you worked in service, you were "supporting the pioneers". What does tha mean? Was my service just a little less---secondary? Weird.

Anyway, we had a pioneer that got angry when a lot of people, WHO ACTUALLY HAD TO WORK DURING THE WEEK, AND SO, VALUED THEIR WEEKENDS, went out in early morning service, and then were done for the day. They weren't there during "normal' hours to "support the pioneers". They weren't doing door-to-door. No, they had actually chosen a method where they had to talk to people. But she argued that door-to-door should be the PRIMARY method, and all the other ways should be in addition to. She constantly criticized those ones until she influenced the elders to actually give a local needs talk about it!

It was funny too, cuz you could tell the elder giving the talk was not comfortable. He just sort of weakly encouraged people to get out door-to-door during normal hours, but he never stated anything firmly.

Needless to say, she also hated other alternate forms of witnessing that didn't "support the pioneers."

Car groups were an excellent time to counsel younger sisters on their hair, their grammer, their diet...whatever. But they were also a lot of fun at times. I remember many mornings being out with a great group and laughing and joking, and having a great time. Then we'd get to the TERRITORY, and that really sucked. So, we'd chat at the doors, and if a householder actually answered, it always felt like an imposition. LOL I loved when someone had a super long return visit, and I could sit in the car with friends and just enjoy myself, and STILL get to count time. I loved very long breaks. It was as though, the actual work of the ministry got in the way.

So there were good times, bad times, and neutral times. It just depended on who you were stuck with. I hated getting stuck with families with kids, cuz I was single, and the focus would be so family oriented, it just bored me. I hated gettting stuck with one crazy sister who always found a way to lose patience and yell at me (and others), and then if I called her on it, she'd freaking cry. And cuz everyone was watching, I would have to pretend to forgive her, and comfort HER after she had yelled at ME. It was endless...

FirstLastName

I remember on some really hot summer Saturdays beingout in service with a huge family, in their huge van with like 8 people in it and I felt like I am suffocating cause the windows in the van would barley crack open. The pioneer mom of the family would tell me to "imagine" I was cool and then I would feel better.

I was probably 11 or 12 at the most when a wife of an elder went to my mom after service and told my mom she did not like how I was so "flirty" with her husband. I was so crushed and embarrassed when my mom told me to not be so "touchy" - I felt I had the plague.

Share Your Tales of Annoying Car Group Advice

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