I too was married at 18, actually on my 18th birthday because my dad did not care for the guy (one who pioneered then went out drinking bashing in peoples mailboxes, going out in service with other young brothers drinking while driving around,etc.)(Hey i was young and liked the bad boys) My dad said I had to wait till I was 18 and it landed on a saturday so thats when we got married. Dad knows best-we now have been divorced 7 years.
Mrs.Congeniality
JoinedPosts by Mrs.Congeniality
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You mean to tell me, normal people don't get married at 17 or 18?
by free2beme inas a witness, most if not all of my friends were married by 18, with many woman married by 17. it was so normal, that when i left the religion and met all these people married in their 20's and later, that it seemed like they were starting late.
i actually was a late person in getting married, i was 23. i remember being one of the few people my age in the congregation, not married yet.
i actually remember thinking, where am i going to find someone to marry, that is not yet taken.
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Going to Memorial Service for the first time.....what should we expect?
by whyizit inwe spent 6 months "studying" with a jw couple.
they claimed the wts had all the answers, but they actually couldn't answer any of our questions.
(we are devoted born-again bible-believing christians.).
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Mrs.Congeniality
Here is what to expect. I was born and raised a witness 30 years and never missed a memorial. Who ever invited you will go around to everyone at the kingdom hall a week or so before the memorial and tell everyone you may show up. Then they will ask them to please go up to you expecting them to act sweet as pie hoping you will think this is brotherly love. I know because in the past i am guilty of it and so is everyone else who invites someone. If you come to dressed up they will assume you must be very interested and hound you like flies on s--t. They will give a talk then pray over the unleavened bread then pass it around. Everyone will be watching everyone else to see who will partake so they can have something new to talk about in service for the next month. Then they will read some more scriptures, pray, and then passing a glass of wine. Again looking around to see who will and wont partake. More to gossip about. Then the rest of the meeting will be about if you want a bible study anyone there would love to study with you. About living in a paradise, etc. As much info as they can hoping to spark some interest. They will spend maybe half the time going over Jesus and why he died for us then the rest of the time about trying to get the newly intersted ones(YOU) to come back again. They want bible studies!!!!!!!!
Please consider this alot----If you show up they will keep coming around. Just a little warning.
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JC ON TAPE
by SickofLies inhttp://neocrat.com/sol.mp3 .
http://www.savefile.com/files/1740618
sorry for the long file, is there anyone that can clean this up a bit, the quality is actually pretty good considering the mic was hidden and i was in a big room.
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Mrs.Congeniality
Dan, My husband and I just listened to the whole thing. WOW WOW thank you sooo much. I am shocked they didnt say " What does it really matter!" Thats what the elder said that we talked to. It took alot of guts to do that, something alot of us might not have done-it must be because of your higher education..We too taped our conversation with an elder although I bought a little recorder 45 min before he arrived and it came with 2 tapes saying 3 hours of recording time. We didnt expect for him to stay long he ended up staying for 1 1/2 hours.We didnt get it all. He claims he is coming back after the memorial. We will see. My sister (Lady Liberty)met with 2 elders at her house 2 months 3 days ago about 607 and they still have not heard a word.At least he prayed with you. Our elder prayed in the car before he came in.Truly Amazing
Thanks again and we all are very proud of you.
Your new true friends
agape
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HAPPY DANCE .. I'm do'in a flip
by xjwms ini put in an offer on a house on its way to a sheriff's sale.
the sale is the 17th this month.. if i close on the house next friday the 14th, ... i get it for a steal of a deal.
the paper work.
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Mrs.Congeniality
If anyone is looking for a loan let me know I am a loan officer and we can do some amazing stuff
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Another Elder bites the dust!!!!
by Lady Liberty inmy sister and her husband finally told a elder friend of theirs why they have been absent from the meetings for all these months.
) our family has chosen to only use the 607 issue when dealing with the elders.
because it seems to be the only issue they cannot answer!
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Mrs.Congeniality
It is great to have family on the same page. Two of my very closest friends have also chosen to leave the org. because I chose to share the info I have researched. All because of my parents deciding to look into things My sister, her husband and daughter are no longer in the org. Myself,my husband and three daughters are no longer part of the org. the two sisters I shared info with along with their husbands and children are no longer in the org. A total of 19 people have left the org. 10 from my hall. I plan on taking as many with me when I go down as I can. Depending on the person decide what info that you think might interst them. For my husband and I it was not the 607 issue because we didnt understand nor care to. What started us was the scripture at John 20:25 when Thomas was wanting to know if it really was Jesus. "Consequently the other disciples would say to him: "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them: "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and stick my finger into the print of the nails and stick my hand into his side, I will certainly not believe." How could they say Jesus died on a stake like in the bible story book shows. He has one stake not more than one. One of the sisters that left the org. asked and elder that ? his response was that Jesus was a big man and only one nail could not hold him up. He also said the Romans were not wasteful people so they would not have used a cross because it would have taken two pieces of wood. Its amazing what answers the elders will come up with when you put them on the spot.
agape
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Help me out, I'm scheduled to give this talk!
by drew sagan inthe dangers of pride and a rebellious attitude rs p. 3911-2 .
here is what the information says... .
reacting to situations on the basis of pride .
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Mrs.Congeniality
My husband and I too wanted to be taken off the schedule. We went up to the school overseer and stated we wanted to be taken off due to personal things going on and no ?'s were asked.
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Another Elder bites the dust!!!!
by Lady Liberty inmy sister and her husband finally told a elder friend of theirs why they have been absent from the meetings for all these months.
) our family has chosen to only use the 607 issue when dealing with the elders.
because it seems to be the only issue they cannot answer!
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Mrs.Congeniality
Hello everyone, my sister is Lady Liberty and this is my experience. I have been told that the reason why the elder did not pray at all with us was because he was afraid we were apostate. I am very fortunate that I have alot of my family that has left the org. I cant imagine what most of you are going through doing this on your own. My husband and I planned on only talking about the 607 issue with this elder for maybe 20 min or so but it turned into 1 1/2 hrs. I went out and bought a recorder not realizing that the tiny tapes only have 45 min per side so we only got half of his visit on tape. After going over his reasoning on 607 which L.L. posted I went into my information ( I posted this explaination under bible research and study articles, page 241 7th post down under easy math for 586/587,) He didnt know how long Nebuchadnezzer reigned yet alone the names of all the kings. So after giving him my explaination he kept trying to go back to the 70 year issue that L.L. explained. After going over this he said he wanted the copy of the list I had made because he wanted to see where the society had got their info. He said you cant always take everything the society prints. I thought my husband was going to freak out. He sat up in his chair and said " You mean to tell me that for 40 years all the publications we have always recieved from the FDS are not totally acurate?" the elder replied"Of course not they are imperfect men also" I even told the elder to please give us a minute because we needed to take in what he was actually saying to us. Since I had him on tape and alone I decided to go over more topics. Child Molestation was one of them. He mentioned how even if one admitted to molesting someone else they would not necessarily have to get DF for it. It depended on the person committing the crime. This really upset me. So I asked him if the elders had to take it to the authorities if someone confessed this. His answer was NO. They encourage the person committing this act to turn themselves in. Yeah Right like that would happen. Then we got on the subject of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. He mentioned that they are not part of the FDS. My husband said "I always thought they were,so if I went to an assembly and got on the stage and asked everyone to raise their hand if they thought the FDS and the WBTS were thought as one together I bet at least 80% would raise their hand" the elder said "Im sure your right but I would not be one of them" he mentioned "you know how at every meeting to the point of nausea that they mention DO PERSONAL STUDY-if ones would just do that they would know this." Then apostate came into picture. He knows that my parents stopped going to meetings a few years ago and asked me the ? "It was your parents that quit going to meetings a few years ago right?(my parents left the org. 4-5 years ago never DF or Disassociated) I said "yes" he said"What are the reasons why?" I told him we are not here to talk about them and it is no ones business but theirs." He back right down. then told me they are boarder line apostate. He doesnt even know their issues they live 400 miles away. I said why because they have ?'s. His reasoning was because they are no longer associationg with the org. I said I have never read that in the bible would he please show me. He said its right here in the insight book. I said I would like to see it from the bible. He looked up apostate in the insight book and started reading the first few sentences. I said I did not want to get into it now but I will check it out later. He told me there were scriptures through out the insight book under apostate that I could look up. I told him I would but a person can not just read one scripture but the context around the scripture because when you do that a scriptures meaning can totally change. He agreed with me. Anyway he mentioned he was giving the memorial talk and he would love to see us there. I told him we were going to observe just not at our hall. So the last thing he said was "Really guys what does it really matter?" I put my face in my hands and my husband stood up and said "Thanks for coming we would like to end this conversation now." Im pretty sure we will get the ax.Thanks for listening to my story and I hope this will help some realize that what they are doing is not wrong. Like the bible says "Make sure of all things and hold to what is fine"
Agape
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Scriptures/Beliefs That Never Sat Right With You
by minimus inwas there anything that you were taught that made you think twice regarding the watchtower's interpetation??
the scripture about jesus raising the temple in 3 days sounded like he was going to raise himself back to life.
i never really understood that scripture.
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Mrs.Congeniality
We are taught that the reason why we can not celebrate birthdays is because
1) Two instances in the bible where someone was killed: First of all nothing bad happened to the person having the birthday. example: If someone is getting married and has a reception and there is alcohol and someone leaves drunk and gets in an accident and dies are we never to have a reception again because someone died? More important the bible talks about a wedding in 1 King 9:16- (Phar'oah the king of Egypt himself had come up and then captured Ge'zer and burned it with fire and the Ca'naanites dwelling in the city he had killed. So he gave it as a parting gift to his daughter, the wife of Sol'omon.) 1 King 3:1-(And Sol'omon proceeded to form a marriage alliance with Phar'aoh the king of Egypt and to take Phar'aoh's daughter and bring her to the City of David, until he finished building his own house and the house of Jehovah and Jerusalem's wall all around. So the society says no birthdays because two people were killed on the birthdays mentioned yet it is ok to give wedding gifts. Not sure how they justify that accorting to the quoted scripture above. What about wedding anniversary parties? People have them all the time. Isnt that celebrating the birth of the wedding on the date every year.
2) We should not put someone on a pedistal: What about baby showers, I have never understood why we could have a baby shower but not a birthday. What is the difference? I asked an elder once that ? and he said it is to help out the parents. Well I dont know about you but my kids grow every year and they can always use new clothes and other things. What about bridal showers?
Just a few thoughts that have bothered me.
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"This thing called Love"
by rockhound in"this thing called love" has surely proven to be an elusive thing, to put your finger on.
in an organization who "equates disagreement with disloyalty" it seems that almost every one in the congregation down deep is harboring something that they disagree with about the organization, but they know better than to let anyone know, except their closest friends, and even then their words are well chosen and spoken in guarded terms.
"please don't repeat what i just said to anybody" is the usual caution.
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Mrs.Congeniality
I LOVE YOU DAD!!!!!!
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Is there depression in the new system???
by hallelujah in.
cause there's certainly depression in the wt world.
dan
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Mrs.Congeniality
it seemed like everytime i went out in service someone mentioned they were on depression meds.