Conversation with elder's wife (page 2)

Faithful Witness

Thanks, Robert: I was looking at both those options! How much time do I want to spend on this lost cause? It will actually give me some things to talk to my mom about. She still asks me every time, if anyone has been by. She knows that JW's are drawn to my doorstep.

We live in the territory of one rural congregation, but when we moved here, we went to the meetings at the KH that shares our zip code. The other JW's always came with invitations for the memorial and sometimes with other campaigns. It sort of became a friendly joke. Then we had our BS get transferred to a less experienced JW, who is part of a 3rd congregation. So we have JW connections all over two counties, even though we were never even publishers.

I finally see the Girl Scouts are out selling their cookies here, so I will pick up some of those GS logo cookies and make sure my table is cleared off and ready for company. I should have given her my number or asked her for a specific time. I'd rather have an appointment, than a surprise visitor.

If I'm not immediately leaving, I think I will invite her in at least once and see how it goes. She is a little bit long-winded. I didn't really know her before, as she was more of an acquaintance. She spoke of at least 3 different people who are studying with her, and it really sounds like she is getting challenged by all of them. She made interesting comments, including her repeated acknowledgment that they do indeed "make adjustments. I don't really think of them as changes" in their understanding.

Faithful Witness

redvip: She didn't actually say that apostates were lying... just that they felt like they had to run around "telling everybody..." (forget the exact words she used, but she was starting to get upset when I asked her what she meant by apostate information).

redvip: What goes through your mind as a JW, when confronted with facts? What does the person who is not representing the society, represent in your mind?

Then I asked her if you were allowed to leave, and she told me a couple of experiences she'd had with disfellowshipped ones.

Punkofnice: I think you are right, about her mind battling with itself, although I didn't see it at the time. I don't really know the lady, but now that I am thinking back about it, I can recognize the times when her conscience was speaking over her JW persona. I really felt like I was talking to a devout JW the whole time. She seemed completely convinced she had the absolute truth, and bragged about how much research she had done, that convinced her the JWs had the real truth. At the same time, she was really good at getting me to open up.

I had run into her a few weeks ago on another errand, and we shared some small talk. When I saw her coming, I wondered if she was going to avoid me or just be polite. I didn't expect her to approach me and offer me magazines and a bible study.

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She made the comment a few times, "I don't want to waste your time. It wouldn't be fair to you either... " and I didn't know if she was realizing she was wasting her time (which I know she gets credit for as a pioneer). I did admit to her, "I probably won't become a Jehovah's Witness." She kept saying how a person had to come to their own decision, etc... but then kept offering her help.

compound complex

Enjoying your story, FW!

Girl Scout Week is celebrated each March, starting with Girl Scout Sunday and ending with Girl Scout Sabbath on Saturday, and it always includes the Girl Scout Birthday, March 12. https://www.gsvsc.org/gsweek/

Best.

CoCo

Faithful Witness

Thanks, CoCo!

I loved my years in Girl Scouts... until 8th grade, when it was no longer cool.

I went to GS camp for 9 summers, and it was the highlight of my year. I had plans to become a schoolteacher, just so I could go to camp every summer as a counselor. (That didn't really work out, but a different story on selling out my dream... haha)

One year, I sold the most boxes in my GS council and got to go to camp for free. It was awesome.

OUTLAW

Apparently an apostate is someone who has known Jehovah but has left and is now PUBLISHING information, trying to make the JW's look bad.

When the WBT$ changes their minds on a subject..

Old WBT$ Literature magicly becomes Apostate Literature..

The WBT$ blames Apostates,for Old WBT$ Literature..

.

..........It`s WatchTarded

.

............................................................................ ...OUTLAW

problemaddict

Hey FW,

Interesting story. especially about the part where you think they probably could have roped you in if they only would have explained the issues you had, instead of having such a viscerol reaction to them.

I studied with alot of people, some from work, some from school, some in other countries....I was a machine. I had a nice born again bible student at one time, bring me some things from a counter cult class her mother attended at their church when she found out her daughter was talking to me. I opened them and read them. I used the trinity as a lynch pin. I claimed with peoples names all over the things she brought me, and a cost to have them, that it was more about individual glory than anything else. i told her I wasn't interested in what these people had to say, as I had the bible as my foundation. Any questions she had, I would always treat seriously, and we could answer from the bible.

She got baptized, married a friend, has 3 kids, is a pioneer........and I told her a few weeks ago I had not been going to meetings. You could see it was incredibly hard for her to accept. I was kind of sort of apologizing for bringing her in, but I couldn't be quite that blunt. She pressed me on doctrine, I told her I didn't want to discuss it.....then i mentioned blood I didn't feel was defendable, especially since 2000.

She was kind of snarky, felt the blood thing was "obvious", suggested I perhaps had a bad attitude, and expressed concern over the lives of my wife and children. I believe I have been uninvited to her daughters graduation party.

So......yeah we can chalk that up to regret. It really hurt to have her do those things....and know that I was essentially responsible for it because I converted her.

ABibleStudent

Hi Faithful Witness, If you do decide to invite the elder's wife in for tea and cookies, how prepared are you to turn off a JW's cult persona?

Are you prepared to do the following:

Overcome at least the 5 most often used WTBTS's thought-stopping platitudes,
Ask simply personal questions that will encourage her authentic persona to overcome her authentic persona, and
Ask questions like Billy the Ex-Bethelite wrote in exJW Psychology 102--How to Ask a Question When Questions Aren't Allowed to hopefully by-pass the elder's wife's cult persona.

Best of wishes to learn how to more effectively reverse-witness to JWs.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

Faithful Witness

Outlaw: Exactly!

problemaddict: What a sad story. I'm so glad I escaped with most of my mind intact. To be totally honest, I don't think they ever would have had enough answers to satisfy my husband, and he would have done whatever was necessary to protect his family. (Even though there was that one time, when the BS teacher cornered him alone, and threatened him, "Are you going to progress here, or are you going to sentence your family to death at Armageddon?"... death threats, really? Didn't have much power over a college educated Gulf War veteran... PULL, don't push, silly JW!).

Robert: What are the 5 most often used WTBS platitudes, and how do I overcome them? I haven't thought of it in these terms before. I'm pretty sure she used at least 2 or 3 on me yesterday, and I didn't challenge her. I don't know her, and really didn't go to the gas station, prepared for battle. ;)

But now I do feel like I definitely should be better prepared, as she has spent many years practicing her techniques.

LostGeneration

Go here and print a copy of this:

http://www.jwfacts.com/images/generationjw.jpg

If you are feeling bold, tell her you assembled this while studying because you were having a hard time figuring out the "generation" prophecy as taught by the JW religion.

All of this is taken straight from WT literature. Ask her which one is the "truth"?

Don't discuss anything else until she answers that question.

ABibleStudent

Faithful Witness - Robert: What are the 5 most often used WTBS platitudes, and how do I overcome them?

Hi Faithful Witness, I was never a JW, so many ex-JW members would be able to recall thought-stopping platitudes better than I.

I consider the following thought-stopping platitudes that JWs use:

"Where else would we go?"
"They (GB) are just imperfect men."
""True Christians" need an organization to lead them" (or someting similiar)
"We are waiting on Jehovah."
"Only JWs do life-saving work by preaching door-to-door like 1st Century Christians."
"JWs are the happiest (or most loving, most trust-worthy, most caring, most giving, etc.) people in the world."
"All JWs behave the same."
"JWs are the most knowlegable about the Bible." (or something similiar)

Why not start a new thread asking for help to identify, rank, and overcome thought-stopping platitudes? I will comment when you do.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

Conversation with elder's wife

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