Visiting other Halls

Maverick

Even though the Dubs are suppossed to be one big, happy, ( braindead) family I found visiting other Halls quite interesting. If I was moving I would check out the Hall in that territory. If I was on vacation or working I would find a Hall nearby. If I was visiting JW family I went to their Hall. Sometimes my wife would want to go to a different Hall to see friends. After the divorce I went to visit old friends.

It was tough not being at your own meeting if you were an MS or Elder with a job to do locally. If a single brother visited amother Hall, the lead Elderett would come over first and make sure you passed her inspection before giving you the thumbs up. Being with family got you a pass unless your family was known as weak.

Generally I felt like an intruder and was held with suspicion until I could prove I was OK. Heaven forbid there was some single young sister at whatever Hall I visited because these gals just knew I was there to check them out! Most times I didn't even know or care about these girls. I felt they were very arrogant to just assume that every brother who comes to visit is there for them!

These reactions from visiting of other Halls was one of the many cracks that started to appear in the WTS for me.

What were your feelings about visiting other Halls? Mav

Black Sheep

Every hall I have ever visited has been full of people who know me or my family. The wouldn't be many halls in the North Island who don't contain some members who are family, friends of family or converted by family or have ancestors converted by my family.

After the meeting is fine, it's all the drivel that comes from the platform that drives me nuts.

Edited to add ....drove me out.

dh

growing up a jw, i had the priveligde of meeting 'brothers' in a few different countries, as well as loads of different congregations in the uk. what i always found interesting is that the rules applied to people in all of those different places varied, there was no standard, i.e. you could get away with some things in one place but not in others. i found spain & portugal, the jw's were genuinely hospitable and nice, but then the people from there are nice anyway, in poland i remember that before the meeting, everyone shook hands with everyone else, so whoever walked in would walk around and shake hands with everyone, this i thought was nice, but this is custom there. in kentucky i have been to jw meetings, i was a late teen at the time, travelling alone, i guess i stood out being an 18 year old guy from england in ky, so it was more of a novelty thing than any interrogation, there were questions but i can't remember what they were, i made some friends there, but again, even in that area, different congregations had different standards, totally.

to me each congregation is like a soap opera.

blondie

I found that it varied. Some were hospitable and some were as "cold as ice."

Some would be friendly until they found out you were a baptized JW, the they would be "gone with the wind."

We visited one congregation on vacation several times over 5 years and no one "talked" to us until the final visit.

Blondie

Netty

Here, it seemed like the spanish speaking congregations were way more hospitable, and seemed to get away with alot more as far as dress and entertainment. Maybe its a cultural thing. And yes, anytime any known JW who was single (either sex) visited, everybody gossiped about how they were looking for a mate.

Mysterious

I remember always whining that one of my close friends always got to go to other halls when his father gave the talk and we never did. Even when we were on vacation we never did. But mother made sure we studied enough to make up for it.