Ever lie on your service reports?

by The_Bad_Seed 45 Replies latest jw friends

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  Prisila

  In 92' I was being harrased by elders on how behind I was in my pioneer hours. Week after week I was harrassed. I got severly sick that year and they wouldn't understand. So I lied the last month . . . August and put 120 hrs. No one questioned me. Actual hrs = 1. I even got a part in the C. convention. I felt like God would strike me down while I was interviewed. A few years later a Watchtower came out about hiding sins. I confessed and was removed as a pioneer. Not made pubic seeing as how I had a pristeen record.

  They asked me why I did it. I should have said becuase you pressured me. But I put all the blame on myself. What a dope!
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  Big Tex

  Does putting magazines in washaterias and phone booths in August when you need 100 hours to make your time for the year count?
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  WildHorses

  All the time
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  david_10

  When I was pioneering back in the early 70's, pioneers had to get in 100 hours a month and so we learned ALL the tricks. Now I never actually lied on my report because that would have been stealing from Jehovah. But I became very skilled at manipulating numbers. The most common thing that I did was the Not - At - Home ploy. I had several not - at - homes scattered around and I would always start my time at one before meeting for service. Many times, I would get so desperate for time that I would go back and forth among these houses knowing that I would never have to talk to anybody. I know all the neighbors saw me and it's a wonder nobody ever called the police. I remember the struggle for time would get so fierce that toward the end of the month I would go to the train station and bus station around midnight to pass out magazines, usually by leaving them on a bench. I got to where I would do anything to get that time in. It was the only thing that mattered. Visit someone in the hospital or nursing home? Only if I counted my time. I had several elderly return visits and I would regularly go see them because I knew that they were so lonely they would always let me in and I could stay as long as I wanted and count the time, of course. Love had nothing to do with it. Thinking about it now makes me feel sick and ashamed. And it never dawned on me how fanatical and pointless it was. And all my pioneer partners, (with one exception, but that's another story), were the same way. We all thought that we were being blessed to put ourselves through that torture. After all, 1975 was bearing down on us and we were going to die if we didn't. And it didn't end there. Even after I was off the pioneer rolls, I was an appointed servant up until I left the Organization in 1987 and I had to do pretty much the the same thing, only on not quite as large a scale. My "privileges" were very important to me and I had to keep those hours up. I think back on those times and I just can't believe I did it.

  Sick and ashamed.

  David
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  Max Divergent

  I remember the scepticisim of the Service Overseer at some of the reports of the older sisters! The speculation was that they counted their preperation time, travel time, thinking time... but it never twigged to this naive twit that they probably just made half of it up (some of them bought 20+ mags a months though, so they paid for their sins...)!

  If 'd have twigged earlier, I'd have started doing it a lot, lot earlier than I did! It was only the last six or so months for me. It just neve occured to me to do anything but be conservitive with what I counted - dumb ass!!

  Max (not so) Divergent
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  Pierced Angel

  The last 4-5 months, I would get a phone call asking for my time for the month (I wasn't attending many meetings by then). I always said at least 4 hours because I didn't want them to know I wasn't "studying" with my kids and I wanted them to count a couple hours a month for that anyhow. When they'd call and I'd say 0 , they would be sure to sigh and act like "well, maybe your workload will lighten and you'll be able to get out more next month". The worst thing was when one elder and his wife decided to "help" me by offering to pick me up for service. After that, I suddenly stopped answering the phone and turned my answering machine off.