Posts by boyzone

There's always a way round every no-no. Don't eat a turkey dinner and plum pudding at christmas, but after christmas is fine, then it becomes just "food". Don't eat easter eggs at easter but after is ok as its "just chocolate". Don't wish happy birthday and eat cake when everyone else does, but take a slice home in a napkin and eat it later, nobody will know. Don't celebrate your birthday, just the anniversary of your birth instead. Don't let your kids make christmas cards at school but they can do a snowman card instead as it's a "winter" picture and not exclusively christmas.

Easter eggs in a box is a definate no-no, but cadbury's creme eggs or a packet of mini eggs are fine as they're only small so they don't really count. Unless they decorate a simnel cake then they do count. Oh, wait, if the cadbury's creme egg is on its own it doesn't count, but if it comes in a packet of 3 then it does count. No, hang on, if the egg is wrapped in coloured foil and is given to you as part of a easter gift whether that be singly or as part of a packet of 3 then it counts. If you buy them yourself with no elder or zealous pioneer sister watching you, stuff your face until you feel sick, hide the packet and wrappings so nobody knows, then it doesn't count.

Is that clear?

91

The Official What happened at the Memorial thread

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i thought rather than everyone start their own topic relating their experience of attending the memorial, we keep it simple and have just one thread.

if anything, it's saves bandwidth.. i will be going to the memorial tonight and will post my experiences afterwards.. all the other memorials i attended, i was an active jw, so this will be my first experience as a submarine witness.

it's weird being on the other side so to speak.

boyzone

Good ole V going to the memorial. Still undercover and producing excellent videos to help others see the lies behind "the truth©"

www.watchtowercomments.com

91

The Official What happened at the Memorial thread

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i thought rather than everyone start their own topic relating their experience of attending the memorial, we keep it simple and have just one thread.

if anything, it's saves bandwidth.. i will be going to the memorial tonight and will post my experiences afterwards.. all the other memorials i attended, i was an active jw, so this will be my first experience as a submarine witness.

it's weird being on the other side so to speak.

boyzone

Yep. Thats the mindset.

91

The Official What happened at the Memorial thread

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i thought rather than everyone start their own topic relating their experience of attending the memorial, we keep it simple and have just one thread.

if anything, it's saves bandwidth.. i will be going to the memorial tonight and will post my experiences afterwards.. all the other memorials i attended, i was an active jw, so this will be my first experience as a submarine witness.

it's weird being on the other side so to speak.

boyzone

Good call. That scripture was on my mind too. How did your parents react to you mentioning this script? My dad gets really angry.

91

The Official What happened at the Memorial thread

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i thought rather than everyone start their own topic relating their experience of attending the memorial, we keep it simple and have just one thread.

if anything, it's saves bandwidth.. i will be going to the memorial tonight and will post my experiences afterwards.. all the other memorials i attended, i was an active jw, so this will be my first experience as a submarine witness.

it's weird being on the other side so to speak.

boyzone

One year later neither my wife nor I were invited - or even had the memorial mentioned to us - by our families, nor did we attend.

Same here Password. I would have liked an invite as it would have been nice to see that they thought enough of me to care, but nothing. I even mentioned the memorial to my witness parents but they changed the subject as if they weren't allowed to mention it to me. To be honest the whole thing left me a bit heavy-hearted so I went along to my local Baptist church last night and the congregation re-enacted the Last Supper and included the Communion. I was given a lovely welcome and felt better after that.

7

1 hr of my life...wasted...

by XxJazzxX in

jw
friends

i went to my first memorial with my wife and her family just to see how this really works in my eyes.

it was very.......interesting, but at least i did get a few laughs out of it.

i honestly wanted to go just to see how it really works....and hear my wife trying to come up with a bargain to avoid going to church on easter.. first off, even though i only went to the hall a few times with my wife, i've never seen so many jw in 1 little place.

boyzone

oh yes! Numbers are the most important part of this evening, its all about the numbers

15

QUIT PUSHING IT AWAY.................PLEASE..........................

by Warlock in

jw
friends

i have noticed that part of, if not all of, the problem with some ex-jw's is that they insist on pushing their jw experience away.. look, you were jw's and that is a fact that you cannot change!.

converted, or born-in.

it is a fact of your life.. quit pushing it away!.

boyzone

I certainly don't push my experience away, in fact its my experience that pushes me away! I would love to "chew the fat" with old aquaintances as this'll help me remember the good times not just the bad. However that isn't allowed.

So what do I do? In the last 2 years I've changed my life. I've lost 5 stone in weight and gained back my confidence. I've moved house and am reaching out for more responsibility in my job. As I've learned the real value of unconditional love, my children have benefitted from my change of attitiude and our relationship is much closer. Life is now something to be embraced and lived, not the forever waiting for something to happen.

Am I pushing my 21 years of JW experience away by doing all this? I don't think so. The JW experience taught me to be a person I didn't like at all. Now I clearly recognise the methods the Society used to mould me into this hard-hearted judgemental, inflexible person I once was. These methods I can avoid like the plague now.

My black or white mindset has also faded. Its incredible how "sure" I was of everything. Nobody could argue with me as I was always right because I was a JW and we had all the answers right? Of course life isn't that simple, there are many mitigating circumstances to take into consideration when assessing a matter, considerations I was unwilling to make as a JW because it didn't suit my argument to do so.

But now the lessons have been learned. Hard lessons too. I have my JW experience to thank for giving me the clear comparison between a hard-hearted person, and one with compassion, between a arrogant know-it-all and one prepared to listen to both sides, between one who shows love to only those that agree with me, and one who shows love to all without conditions.

No, I don't push my experience away, I embrace it, learn from it. For its the comparison between my JW life and my life now that makes me so happy to be an ex witness.

28

Did you get a memorial invite this year?

by drew sagan in

jw
friends

for some reason i almost half expected to get one this year (from the elders).

my mother-in-law invited my wife which i assume inlcuded me.

the last memorial i attended was in 2006, seems like so long ago.... so how many here actucally got some "encouragement" this year?

boyzone

Thats nice yadda, are you going?

my parents aren't inviting me. In fact they don't even mention it in conversation. If they dare mention anything to do with the congregation its like throwing pearls before swine in their minds. For example they've just had their 2 day circuit assembly. I knew it was last weekend but when I asked them what they'd been doing on the weekend, they just hum'd and ahh'd and changed the subject. It was so silly.