Deeply devout JW brother-in-law:"Oh, it's really bad in South Korea. The brothers have a bad time over there, they get thrown in prison because they won't serve in the military..."
or
Me:"My son has gotten an amazing opportunity to do an internship in Moscow! His lodgings are provided, he gets a living stipend, and he'll be working at Yandex, the Russian version of Google!"
Deeply devout JW mother-in-law:"They still ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. They are not allowed to preach!"
I know I should realize by now that this is going to be the reaction to anything that doesn't have to do with Pioneering or Bethel, but it still just disappoints and makes me mad.
It also drives home the reason why I, as a young man, never really did anything like this, because I knew that there would be some form of disapproval, either vocal, or in the eyes, of family and members of the Hall.
So, eff all of them! My sons will get to have life experiences that my idiot brother-in-law will never have, or will never be sentenced to a life of waiting for a bus that will never, ever arrive, like my mother-in-law has done to herself.