I live in a majority-minority neighborhood, so I get the double Witness whammy of my street being worked by both Spanish- and English-speaking congregations. JWs come to my door about four times a year, but I stopped answering years ago. What's interesting is that about two years ago, they stopped knocking on my door or ringing the doorbell. The only way I'd know they had been there was when I'd find a tract in the door or when my dogs would bark.
Today my dogs warned me someone was coming, so I peeked out and saw them climbing the steps and then hid in the dining room and watched them out the window. It was a young man and woman, both in their early 20s, just hanging out on my porch and chatting quietly to each other. I waited about two minutes and they didn't seem in too big of a hurry (lol) to leave, so I opened the door and took them by surprise.
Me: (smiling face and voice) "Hey, how's it goin'?"
JW male: (shocked face, not happy to see me) "Oh, um, uh, we're looking for people who speak Spanish."
I thought that was kind of strange - no introduction, no Hi, how are you today?, just an odd way to start a conversation.
Me: (laughing) "How come you didn't knock or ring the bell then?"
JW: (launches into a long explanation of how he knocked softly, because sometimes people are sleeping [it was 11 a.m.] and then started talking about how sometimes people don't like it when you ring the doorbell, etc.)
Me: "It's cool - I'm just teasing you! I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and I never rang the doorbells or knocked on the doors either. I just pretended to."
JW: (doesn't bat an eye at my big reveal, just goes back into the same explanation of how he actually DID knock, it was just a light knock, on and on)
Me: (still smiling) "It's okay! I had to do this for years and years, too, and I totally understand if you don't want someone to come to the door. That's how I used to feel anyway."
JW: "Okay, well, um we're from the Spanish congregation and we're just looking for people who speak Spanish."
I tell them that while most of the families on the street are Hispanic, they also speak English and then direct them to the few houses I think might speak only Spanish. We exchange names and he tells me I have beautiful dogs and they leave.
That was it. No attempt to engage me on the fact that I was obviously a lapsed JW, no questions whatsoever about it. The young woman just smiled back at me and nodded the whole time, didn't say a word except goodbye. It's very striking to me how much has changed just over the past few years. If I encountered someone I didn't know at the door and they told me they used to be a JW, I'd at the very least ask them what congregation they went to or invite them to a meeting, offer a Bible study, something.
Here's the thing I hate. Even though I've been out since 1998 and don't really think about the religion anymore (for the most part), I get so damn nervous and shaky when I talk to them at my door. I always hide it pretty well, but my hands were literally shaking when they left and I don't understand why.
I'm also now doing the hindsight thing where I wish I had invited them to sit on the porch and shoot the shit for a while to help them get in some easy field service time.
...OUTLAW