and it sure was a laugh, in melbourne they have the convention at the tennis centre with most of vic jw going there.
i think round the time i got baptised there were around 14,000 in attendance.. theres footage of the convention, there footage of us volunteers early in the morning making sandwhiches in our gorgeous cloth hats and aprons, and then theres my baptisim,.
sure brought back a lot of memories.
someone asked a question in the "what generation are you" thread:.
were you "raised in the truth," or did you "come into the truth?".
i was raised..
in our congregation, we had a theocratic ministry school overseer make the sisters stand while giving their talks because he would counsel them on a point of counsel having to do with speaking to the "householder".
(i forget that exact point of counsel) so the sisters knew they had to follow this imbecile's quirks or get a "w".
another rule that was eventually abandoned too, was that only elders and ministerial servants could offer prayer at the kingdom hall......any rules that you had to deal with??
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i really want out but keep going for personal reasons.. my question: has anyone else during their fade period gone off the school, quit do-t-do and just gone to the sunday meeting?.
that's where i'm at right now but it's a living hell still 'being' a publisher but being a lump at the same time..
at this stage of "coming out" of the "truth", would it faze you if you were disfellowshipped?
as the study went on i began to think about the baptism annulment letters i have seen people composing on this board.
what if you just told everyone you never dedicated yourself to jehovah?.
of course they would call you a liar for having said yes to the two questions during the baptism talk.
I was baptized at age 12 because I was pressured by a "pioneer sister". I had been going out in service during the summer and she asks me one day "so when are you going to get baptized?" " you should get baptized". I was really taken aback by her questioning at the time I think I said something like aren't I too young? I think I was scared to death to actually do it. I had no idea what it meant as a 12 year old. But I did it because it was expected of me and I didn't want to be looked down or labled "bad association" for not doing it. I can remember going over "the questions" with the elders and there was stuff I didn't understand but I answered from the book like a good little witness girl.
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daily i look near and far for my witnessing bag, but to no avail.. .
no more witnessing for me.
i'm sure this may have been covered, but many ex witnesses i know that have not been formally df'd or dissasociated thenselves still retain some friends among witnesses.
any friends i have for the most part that are still in the org are really congenial people, until it comes down to any discussion that might teeter on the edge of being remotely deep.
i've had one friend i hadn't seen in a while who came to visit me tell me right off the bat that we were not to "discuss religion", because i'm "too smart" and he "he won't be able to argue" with me.
Even looking at another religion's literature was labeled "apostate" when I was growing up. How ridiculous is that? All I knew was what I was told at the KH and by my parents. I would express doubts to my JW best friend whom I trusted and was told I needed to "talk to the elders and pray about it". She would say "the end is so close, you haven't got that much time to question". After awhile you just don't want to bring it up anymore it gets so fatiguing!
...happy birthday to me....happy birthday to me..... hi everyone!
we'll most likely do a nice dinner tonight as a family (husband, daughter and i), and i will have to buy my own cake.
but we can never call it a birthday anything...the very mention of the term freaks him out!
in our congregation, we had a theocratic ministry school overseer make the sisters stand while giving their talks because he would counsel them on a point of counsel having to do with speaking to the "householder".
(i forget that exact point of counsel) so the sisters knew they had to follow this imbecile's quirks or get a "w".
another rule that was eventually abandoned too, was that only elders and ministerial servants could offer prayer at the kingdom hall......any rules that you had to deal with??
I remember at conventions "the young people" were always told not to "hang out" in the concourse areas looking specifically for single "brothers" or single "sisters" One Elder giving a talk reffered to sisters trolling for brothers at conventions as "concourse cuties"
Where the f**ck were we supposed to meet people then??