A Total Waste of Time "In The Field"

by OnTheWayOut 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OnTheWayOut

  So I am walking down the street in a Spanish neighborhood and two men, obviously JW's, are standing between houses writing furiously on their tiny slips. I am nearly a block away approaching and they just kept writing the whole time I walked up. I finally arrive to pass them and they are still both writing. One looks up and says "Buenos Dias" to me and I walked by. No followup, no attempt to share their message with me.

  I won't even bother saying how they were wasting time because they weren't bringing anything of value to the "householders." Let's forget about that and focus on how "productive" they were.

  I am pretty sure they were taking vigorous "Not-at-Home" or "Not-Interested" notes. They were working doors, not people. I was a person and not a door, so no need to say anything to me. And I am sure that on Friday morning, a huge percentage of the doors would go onto their slip of paper as not-at-home. If they spent long enough writing vigorous notes, they could be sure not to ring too many more bells before time for a break. I am sure after taking their vigorous notes, someone will call again and try again and find the majority still not-at-home. After several JW's count several hours in that territory, the notes will be thrown away and the territory will be marked as "worked" until several months or even a year from now when it is started all over again.

  I imagine this time around, they will speak to less people than the number of hours they count and the number of old magazines they "place" at the unanswered doors will make them proud of their service to Jehovah and feeling guilty enough to drop a few bucks in the box. Those old mags will go straight to the junkmail pile which ends up in the trash or maybe straight to the trash. In the old days when there was the tiniest bit of substance to their reports on beetles in rural Africa or waterfalls in North America, a child might have cut out the pictures. Now, there's not too much of that in there. Meanwhile, several people were walking on that street not being bothered by these evangelistic diligent note-takers.

  What a joke they have become.
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  Village Idiot

  Good for them. Both the householders and the Witnesses.

  I'm surprised though that Spanish Witnesses are that lax. They've always seemed to be more motivated than Anglos.
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  sir82

  In my experience, most JWs in field service would really prefer not to talk to anyone. I'd say about 75% of JWs fall into that category.

  Amongst elders I'd say it was closer to 90%.
  
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  John Aquila

  What a waste of life!
  
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  brandnew

  Dude.........i hope these people are totally redeemed for the way they have been decieved...

  Really, its not them, its the fuckin org that has em by the balls. I totally feel for these people, and wish they would wake up.
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  westiebilly11

  ...ah yes..the 'look at me I'm being busy in service' brothers.....the ones who spend less than 5 minutes talking with public yet spend an hour filling in notes etc...notes full of trivial..but important..details of who was in...any children..(creepy)...dog or cat...clues as to householders etc etc.....and then a few weeks later the same brothers/sisters will be featured in a ' how did we do in May..' item.....with commendation following.. all pathetic.
  
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  tim3l0rd

  Are you Hispanic? If you had answered in Spanish, they may have engaged you in a conversation. A congregation is told to focus only on the language of the congregation. This is to prevent harassing the same territory/people repeatedly and often. The English/Spanish/ASL/French congregations do not coordinate which territories they will be working. If they happen to see another congregation in that territory, then they will move to another, but otherwise the foreign language congregations will not normally engage English speakers. That is the English congregation's responsibility and territory.

  Foreign language groups/congregations have a list of names/addresses that they target and don't usually go from door-to-door. Sometimes they will knock on a few doors to ask if anyone in that area speaks Spanish, French, or whatever language they are involved in, otherwise they focus on the addresses they already have on file.

  Source: I'm still stuck in an ASL congregation and have had many friends in Spanish congregations.
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  SoCal101

  Grew up in Spanish congregation. We would have to search for the Spanish-speaking households by knocking at every 3rd or 4th door. We would ask the householder if they knew if any of their neighbors were Spanish-speaking and then off we would go. We would put hours in at the Lilly-white neighborhoods without ever having to give a presentation. Then maybe the one or two Hispanics we found in those neighborhoods usually spoke better English than the rest of them! LOL Loved it!

  Now the hood was a different story!
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  OnTheWayOut

  Village Idiot, I do like that they bother people less.

  Sir82, yes. Elders have important things to do. No time to talk to people.

  Thanks you, John Aquila.

  Brand New, me too.

  westiebilly11, so true. A further waste of time- hold up the best time-wasters as examples. I wonder if, due to the cost of literature, platform skits at conventions will include wonderful examples of cart-witnesses being there all day to "save" people with the holy literature, but apparently Satan got to everyone that day and they placed nothing, but earned their way into heaven for the 8 hours apiece at the cart. (Oh, and they did not get skin cancer because they had umbrellas.)

  tim310rd, that is my actual picture. I look hispanic. I get what you are saying, but there was definitely no attempt whatsoever to talk to me or other, clearly Spanish-speaking people walking by. This time was being counted in completing a door-to-door territory, not reaching people on the street. Reaching people on the street is for others, the cart-witnesses......well......for cart-witnesses to be out there where the angels can guide the right-hearted people to approach them and interrupt their conversation and ask for a good magazine or brochure that will wind up bringing them into the truth by it's magic quality of being just what they needed to read.
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  StarTrekAngel

  I am in an area where 98% of people are hispanic and over 60% speak spanish at home. South Texas, near Brownsville. Here we were instructed, starting about a year ago, to make sure (as per the CO) that no territory would be turned back in without a not-at-home that has not been catch at home at some point. Gives the pioneers lots to do. Otherwise, the area each cong has is too small for any one pioneer to work on. They have put a lot of weight on that mandate. Every house needs to be visited before turning it in. The territory map and the notes are turned in at the end of the month so that the elders can make a report but you can have it right back to continue working it.

  Ironically, we also have been instructed to refrain from entering properties with a "keep-out" sign or even if the gate to the property is open. Some time ago, a couple of sister went into a large house with an automatic gate. Even when the saw the owner had just left, the message is so urgent, that they had to go in, hoping someone would be left at home. In between walking and and knocking, the gate closed by itself, locking the sisters inside the yard. You can imagine the mood of the owner when he was somehow located and asked to return and free the children of God.

  So last time i went in service, 6 months ago, it was like walking the streets for relaxation. We just walked by hoping to find someone cutting the grass. Otherwise, most houses has closed gates and fences. We had no other recourse but to grab a rock and bang it against the hurricane fences, in the hopes that we would caught someones attention.