When do you begin counting time? (page 2)

I start it at 9:00am, when the service meeting begins. Then, I let it run through 9:30, when we get to the territory. At 9:45, when the brother leading the car group gets all the directions in order and we knock on the first door, it's still going. Then, at 10:00 when we hit Tim Horton's for break, I just let it ride, since it's only a few minutes. At 10:30, when we're getting back in the car, it's rolling right along and as we drive across town to someone's return visit who we all know works during the day on weekends, it's still accruing. At 11:00am we get to the RV's house. Stand outside there for 5 minutes, take another 5 figuring out where the next NH RV is.

By 11:15, we're back on the road. Tack on another :30 to the RV who has a softball game on Saturdays and has for the last 6 months. By then, it's 11:45 and time to head to McDonald's for lunch. I figure the theocratic banter allows me to keep the time rolling, trading service stories and "clever" comebacks to use at the door, like "I don't believe in God." "Oh? Well, he believes in you."

By 1:00pm we're back on the road, because Paul said to be at it diligently. We "pioneer shuffle" around a block and by 3:00 we've knocked on nearly 8 doors. One of them even had a person behind it and I stumbled over my convoluted, boring, ill-prepared pitch. They said they weren't interested. Goat!

Load up, drive back to the Hall, drop off Sister Ancient and head for the homestead. Get there at about 3:30 and I'm bushed. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. 6½ hours in Jehovah's service. Now I can beat my kids and never give my wife an orgasm in good conscience.

SlipnSlide

I really tried to be honest with reporting my time. I would count it from the time we left from the field service arrangement until just before lunch. I was just keeping up appearances (would meet in the territory to show my face and then leave for a fake study I had). When they let us count time in increments of 15 minutes, I fudged a little on my field service for time. Yeah, there was this elder who hounded people for their time each month and I had to set him straight on demanding my time from me. A bunch of control freaks. They got my time when I was good and ready to give it to them!

saltyoldlady

You people have me rolling in laughter - think my sides will split. I used to be one of those do it by the book types - didn't start until I rang the first doorbell (and no the KH didn't have a doorbell - maybe they should install one now that I think about it) and then when the brother asked me to transport a sister to her bible study I'd stop my time for the 5 minutes it took to do that task and start back up when I rang the next doorbell. I was under the tutelage of a very persnickety elder who taught me these things - guess where he ended up - you guessed right - the GB. But we all felt "so righteous" - his son though was smarter than us cookies - he'd use the telephone at the hall to call some return visit or even his bible study and then start his time with that act. Really works great if you call someone you KNOW has already gone off to work.

And Man in Black - you must have served the same place as me because we had an elderly brother that did exactly that - would never never go into the donut shop for a break so we'd make sure to bring him something gooey and sweet which he graciously wolfed down while we sped on to the next visit or maybe another donut shop that had a better brand of coffee. Only I really liked that old brother - he just had his eccentricities is all. We got him to come in with us once and he overheard someone at the counter say oh here comes the "God Squad" and he was so offended we could not dissuade him from his rigid stance again.

Then years later when I moved out into the rural territory I realized the need to loosen up - we had one dear sister who was an oldtimer raised in the WTS - her parents started some of the congregations in Mexico and elsewhere - when we would gather a full carload of sisters - 5 of us packed tight and go on return visits for the whole morning she would not begin her time until she made her first return visit which meant one time she didn't get to start until 11:20 AM and she was trying to pioneer that month. She was so pissed and peeved that she made all of us feel miserable and I decided if counting time does that to us we should STOP the practice period. We had actually had a wonderful morning because everyone's visits had been home and we had had meaningful calls everytime which take a half hour at least, especially when one considered how far we drove to get there - there wasn't much point to only making a ten minute call and then buzzing off again. It could take an hour to reach some of the territories in that area. So I noticed another practice going on - they would make the fake RV right around the hall or in town and then count the long travel time. It occurred to me if that was okay with Jehovah then obviously it was okay to count the time in travel period and a pretense of observing nit-picking rules was unnecessary. I didn't make myself very popular by expressing my views. But working the rurals loosened up my time-counting procedures considerably.

That is really one practice the WTS needs to DUMP - bigtime. I fear the time they collected from us as bogus as their own reporting of memorial partakers.

factfinder

@SweetBabyCheezits- that is a good one! thats funny!

Regarding FS- I began to count time when I got to my first door or my first RV.

ssn587

I normally counted my time for the month on the first of the month, throw a dart at the calendar and whatever date it lands on is the amount of time turned in without of course wasting time doing it. Sounds fair don't you think?

DesirousOfChange

Regaqrdless of how long the breakwas, regardless of whether we called on any elderly (baptised) friends, regardless of whether we stopped (for too long) at garage sales, I figured any Saturday in service was worth 2 1/2 or 3 hours......depending on how liberal I needed to be at the end of the month to have national average. Didn't matter if I talked to anyone or not. More literature placements to count if no one was home (but less to heat the fireplace)!

When do you begin counting time?

SweetBabyCheezits

WontLeave

SlipnSlide

saltyoldlady

factfinder

ssn587

DesirousOfChange

charlie brown jr.

jeckle

streets76

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