Posts by luna2

92

Compiling List-Trivial Items People Are Counseled Against

by love2Bworldly in

jw
friends

i hope this is not a repeat of past threads and i hope to get a lot of response.

i am compiling info of how people are treated within the wts.

i just read the post about a person being counseled for having baby shower games.

luna2

Some of these things are seriously retarded! The poor woman with the nipple "problem"! Maybe the brothers should have been counseled on keeping their eyes off of her breasts. Sheesh.

I've been counseled by a pioneer sis not to wear a jean skirt to book study, but that's about the only thing I can think of at the moment. Maybe I just blanked it all out. LOL

I did have the pleasure of teasing Elder Perfect, who I worked for, about Stevie Nicks being a white witch...he was seriously bummed and wouldn't believe it because he lurved her. His face got all red and he was a very unhappy with me for a long time. I could have cared less if she called herself a witch and wasn't "stumbled" by his fandom, but I think he thought I was.

16

Have a blessed day

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

i have noticed that every time i go to a local store, the checkout girl always says, "have a blessed day" as i walk away after the transaction.

has anyone else come across this, and am i the only one who finds it annoying?

it seems to me that people who do this are "show boating" their religion... basically blowing a horn and saying: "look at me!

luna2

Ah, I've heard cashiers use the "Blessed Day" expression a couple of times. It bugged me too but I wasn't sure why so I didn't say anything.

Ew on the brother and his "Enjoy your Day" reasoning. That's just wrong.

29

What did they all do on "worldly holidays" when you were home alone?

by LongHairGal in

i always hated being alone on thanksgiving or christmas.

what bothered me was that if it were known you accepted an invitation by relatives it was frowned upon.

but what got to me was this: is god more pleased that i am home looking at four walls alone rather than being over somebody's house??

luna2

After spending one Thanksgiving at a sister's house (with quite a group of other single sisters) where she made turkey and stuffing, we all brought side dishes or desserts, and it was just as if we were celebrating the holiday anyhow, I lightened up and started going over to my relatives for dinner on the holidays. Only diff was that we'd leave before presents and I would be careful not to say Happy Thanksgiving/Easter/Christmas to anyone.

My parents started booking dinner at a favorite restaurant (my mother's not up for cooking and enjoys limiting the holiday social time to a couple of hours) for the first sitting...usually around 11:00a.m. on Thanksgiving...so that I could make my bookstudy in the afternoon. I think my parents enjoy the early meal and then going home to do whatever they want for the rest of the day so I'm sure we'll keep to that tradition even after I tell them that I'm no longer a JW. LOL

17

Slacker Pioneering

by scotsman in

jw
friends

as i was reading the thread about not at homes i wondered if anyone else a slacker pioneer?.

there was a bunch of us in our hall that went out on a wednesday.

we usually managed about 45mins before needing a coffee which somehow extended through lunchtime, maybe interupted by a return visit that hopefully wasn't home.

luna2

I was never a Pioneer, but I've heard stories and seen stuff. Most of the time, I'd say the Pioneers I observed were deceiving themselves as much as they were the WTS. Some would start their time by dropping off mags at a laundromat and then suddenly remember they left something at home, so they'd drive all the way home, still counting the time, to pick up whatever it was before starting return visits or something. Some would do errands while out in service and not stop their time because "Jehovah knows we need to do these things" ...which is true, but I never thought He'd think of doing your banking as service to him. LOL

17

Breaking the silence on the new Hitchhiker's Guide movie

by AlmostAtheist in

jw
friends

did anybody see the new hitchhiker's guide movie yet?

i went this weekend.. wow, what a disappointment.

it didn't "suck", exactly, but it wasn't what it could have been.

luna2

Aaah, good to know. I never read the books so I might like it better than you did, but I'm not sure I want to chance it. LOL The previews didn't intrigue me all that much.

24

Last JW meeting

by greendawn in

when you finally came to the jw meeting that you knew was your last one, what were your thoughts, feelings or actions?

.

my last was the summer convent of 1986. i stood there until everyone left and then i took a picture with my new camera of the empty stadium, the wish being that the wts would collapse and never fill up again stadiums with people.

luna2

I faded so slowly, that I wasn't aware that my last meeting was for sure going to be my last. Still thought I might "pull it together" and go back someday. All I knew, was that on that Sunday, I couldn't concentrate any more. The words from the podium barely made sense and I was daydreaming throughout the whole thing. As I slipped out the little side door in the overflow room while everybody was singing in the break between the public talk and the Watchtower study, all I could think of was getting out of the stifling air of the Hall without being stopped and taken on a guilt trip by any of the happy friends. LOL

11

Remember the not-at homes?

by Thegoodgirl in

jw
friends

that obituary post reminded me of those awful weekday mornings knocking on entire neighborhoods of not-at-homes.

i remember one particular neighborhood in florida where it was one big trailer park of "snowbirds" who would move back up north for the summer.

however, being the thorough jws that we were, we would knock on every single door, leaving magazines, etc, even if the awnings were down and it was obvious no one would be livng there for months.

luna2

I both liked and didn't like them, if that makes any sense at all. Like Daunt, I liked that I could put my time in without having to confront people with stuff that they hadn't asked for and didn't want, but on the other hand, I'd get home and feel like I'd just wasted a ton of time, energy, and gas for nothing more than making a show for the brothers and sisters.

Informal witnessing? Hey I could do that all day long if the person I was talking to was truly interested, even street witnessing wasn't so bad. Door to door service I simply never took to. I didn't enjoy it and never kept good records. It wasn't that I didn't believe at the time, I simply hated bothering people in their homes like that. I'm so very glad I no longer have to either do something I detest or wallow in guilt and bear the shame of being considered weak.

10

Shunning JWs and cultural background

by greendawn in

jw
friends

it appears that most jw parents follow the insane instruction of the gb to shun their own children in case they leave or get expelled from the org, that's what we perceive by reading ex-jw sites.

that may well be the case in the english speaking countries mainly represented on this board for example, but i find it difficult to believe that the same occurs with jws of different origins eg southern european, latin american, japanese where family ties are much stronger.

the different cultural background could influence jws in taking certain decisions such as this.

luna2

I always wondered about the prohibition on beards here in the states. It seemed ridiculous. I sort of get that they weren't interested in the brothers going around looking like hippies or like they were Amish (God forbid we should be mistaken for another group, although they'd need a long beard and one of those cool hats to really look Amish), but I thought it was silly to tell grown men that if they grew facial hair, they'd not be in line for certain priviledges. I do remember hearing that it wasn't as big a deal in England.

Re talking to disfellowshipped kids: There are some that really are strict here and others that are less so. In the two congregations that I have been a part of, there have been both families that were hardline about the issue and ones that were not. The ones that did speak and associate with their DF'd kids were just careful who they allowed to know about it.

46

JW working the obituaries

by Icansaylucky in

i was reading my local paper this morning and there was a letter to the editor.

the writer had recently lost a child and the child's obituary was recently printed in our paper.

the writer said she received a letter with a "jehovah witness tract" called "what help for dead loved ones?

luna2

You truly think you're providing a service too. What a "comfort" it would be to the grieving family members to get this "truth" into their hands. ::sigh::

I always felt weak and cowardly because I couldn't do it. I didn't think it would comfort someone who'd just lost a loved one to hear that the JW's thought everything they ever believed about heaven and the afterlife was wrong.

11

Windchimes--does WTS have info?

by love2Bworldly in

jw
friends

does anyone have any info on what the wts says about windchimes?

i seem to recall they were related to evil spirits or some-such-nonsense.

luna2

It got so I was almost afraid to put a vase of flowers or candles on the dining room table because doing such and so might have been a demon-inspired ritual someplace or sometime in the history of man. Ugh. ...and I seem to remember being told by the sis who studied with me that the windchime thing wasn't a good idea, right before she lovingly directed me to cancel my YMCA membership. I get a headache just thinking about it now.