Posts by luna2

33

How Many Of You "Bumped" Your Field Service Hours?

by EvilForce in

how many of you bumped up your field service hours so you could keep the elders off your back?

our congo had a 10 hour "soft" target for guys.

however, if you didn't meet the 10 hours you got your "privledges" reduced or revoked.

luna2

If I hadn't decided to leave, I think I would have developed my own policy for counting FS hours. I was sick of getting to the Hall on a Sat. morning, wasting all kinds of time meeting for service (some of these meetings took up to 45 min. to get everybody into car groups and out the door), going out actually working the territory for sometimes only a half an hour before stopping for break, taking 45 min. breaks, and then working for another half hour before stopping for the day.

It was very frustrating to have been up since 7:00, at the Hall by 9:00, not get home until 12:30, and only being able to record one hour. It wasn't like it was my decision to fart around the majority of the morning. I was seriously thinking about starting to count my time from the moment I walked into the Hall to the time we stopped, deducting half an hour for break time.

48

Did YOU Ever "Stumble" Anyone? ....Anyone Ever "Stumble" You???

by minimus in

jw
friends

the elders and the organization always put us on alert to make sure we never "stumbled" anyone.

of course, someone was always be counseled for this offense.

luna2

I'm not sure I ever stumbled anybody...didn't get called for it anyhow.

Having a couple of jobs with JW bosses was something of a stumbler for me. I think I got a very rocky start in the org after having to deal with these "loving" brothers and sisters. It's too bad that I picked myself up and continued staggering forward! I should have realized something was off and run far, far away.

I was asked once by another elder about the elder I worked for, but I declined the invite to discuss the matter. What's funny is that the elder who asked got reprimanded himself for being abusive to his stepsons.

59

Have you a POSITIVE JW experience??

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

ok sometimes i feel it's good to maybe not redress the balance, but at least can you say something positive that you gained from your jw experience.

so thats what i want you to do, if you so feel inclined.

can you say or mention something that had a positive effect on you when you were a witness?

luna2

I'm a very conventional sort of person and very rarely tested limits even as a teen. I can even remember as an adolescent sort of polling older friends and relatives trying to determine if I was within "normal" parameters or not. I was very worried about what people thought of me.

Becoming a JW helped pull me out of the box and let me see what it was like not being like the majority of people around me (my children and I were the only ones in our family living the JW life). Of course, I was pulled from one box only to be put into another, even more restrictive box as a Witness, but now that I'm finally out, I think I can look more clearly at various customs and practices in society and decide to participate or not based on what *I* really want to do and not what other people think I should be doing.

30

Does Devil Talk Irritate You?

by love2Bworldly in

jw
friends

i enjoy reading the bible on my own since i left the jw's.

i get extremely irritated when other people talk to me about how satan is causing certain things in my life--example is if i'm not getting along with a coworker or anything like that.

(my husband also blames satan).

luna2

I have a real hard time with it. I didn't do much of it myself, even when I was active in the borg. I'm very low-key and dislike sounding extreme in any way. I could entertain the idea of debbils and satan, but I didn't go flinging them around willy nilly in conversation...nor did I enjoy hearing too much of that kind of stuff from other people.

Now, after having discovered that I was completely fooled by the WTS and feeling like a gullible little simp, I'm questioning every belief I once held, even in the Bible, and have less tolerance for demon talk than ever. I try to remember not to be too bitchy about it, though. LOL

23

Another JW alternative

by Justin in

jw
friends

for those interested in an alternative to the jws, check out http://www.bibledecoded.com/index.html .

the lws claim to be the successors to the jws!

they have their own chronology, disfellowshipping rules, etc.

luna2

Sounds like a fun group. LMAO! I'll have to check them out when I get home tonight. I'm afraid I'll start laughing too hard here at work.

35

Boy! Do women love to talk!

by Maverick in

"we need to talk"!

men hate to hear those four words coming off of their gf's pouty lips.

we know what they are really saying is, that they need to chew our butts and we need to take it!

luna2

Thanks for the chuckle!

8

Not wasting your time on people

by Markfromcali in

jw
friends

just a really simple point here, have you ever noticed maybe after a particular conversation (or series of them) that looking back, it was a total waste of time?

like no matter what effort you make you just couldn't get through to actually communicate with the person you are talking to.

it may be easier to let it go for people you are not so close to, but probably a bit harder if say you have family in as jws.

luna2

I dunno, Mark, sometimes a convo might seem like a waste of time, but seeds were planted that sprout later (ugh...too much of a JW analogy, sorry). I know my friend must have felt discouraged more than a few times when she was trying to open my eyes to some of the things that were bothering her about the WTS over the years and I just didn't/wouldn't see. Eventually, though, it got through my thick skull. LOL

121

Do you ever feel invisible?

by Sassy in

jw
friends

sometimes i do.

luna2

Awww, Sassy. I've had those days too. Some days you just feel low and you react.

Obviously this post struck a nerve with a lot of people, though, so it's all good.

((Hugs))

121

Do you ever feel invisible?

by Sassy in

jw
friends

sometimes i do.

luna2

Like doogie, I sort of like being invisible...sometimes.

Truly, I think everybody feels this way from time to time. I've noticed it in non-JW boards too, so I think its the nature of a message board.

I had a blog too for a while that I'd post daily stuff in. It wasn't high drama or comedy, but you'd think that the friends on my list (I had the thing set for friends-only) would have something to say even if it was only Hi, but there were many days when they didn't make one comment. It made me feel so bad that I stopped posting to it. LOL I might start it up again only because I'm noticing here that whether people respond directly to something I've posted or not (and some have...Thank you!!), it's helping me to come to conclusions and work through things in a way I hadn't anticipated.

I do read most threads and find that everybody has something interesting to contribute.

16

Did you think they were hooked on titles and "classes"?

by LongHairGal in

i couldn't stand all the titles and categories they had!

i felt they were hooked on respect which maybe in some cases bordered on adulation.

i had a problem with this because i always saw it as unchristlike.

luna2

I think certain people in the cong. certainly were and are.

There was a particular CO we had (I had him twice! once in IL and once in CT) who really seemed to eat it up. He'd kind of condescendingly call people by their last name (no Br or Sr attached), and would make jokes, sometimes embarrassing people quite on purpose. His talks were filled with blood and gore to the point that I wished I had the guts to stand up and walk out of the Hall. I guess not many felt as I did, however, because that IL cong. almost kissed his feet when he graced us with his presence.

I had to bite my tongue hard to keep from saying too much. I couldn't stand him or his wife. She had some sort of problem or sensativity to perfumes and it was made into quite a big deal. Even a wiff of scented shampoo or too much fabric softner on clothes was enough to send her weeping from the car when going out in service. She had a ton of food allergies too, always requesting organic foods and really placing a burden on those that had them over for a meal. While she may have truly had such a problem, I always suspected that it was mostly a put on. Sure gained her a lot of attention, though.

When this CO and wife were assigned to CT, I couldn't take it and absented myself completely for their whole visit, so I don't know if the same adulation was accorded them from the cong. here too or not.