i will volunteer to coordinate this.. if you would like a card sent to you or send a card, pm me your mailing address and a name the post office will deliver to.. what do you think the cut off date should be for sending the exchange lists out to everyone?.
do you want it pm'd or e-mailed (if emailed send your email address with your snail mail.. i know that cards going overseas can take longer.. .
blondie.
Ziddina - Here's a link for USPS International mail: http://www.usps.com/prices/first-class-mail-international-prices.htm
It looks like Canada is $0.75, Mexico is $0.79, and all other countries are $0.98 for a small letter under 1 oz.
Hope that helps!
well, an interesting thing happened today, here in southern california.
as i was sipping my morning coffee, i heard a distinct knocking on my door.
the front door was closed, so i didn't open it.
I've had 4 visits this month! The old school elders ring the doorbell...so I disabled it. But the elder who came by was just on regular service, and he knocked really, really softly.
I hated bothering people at their home, so I would always knock softly and hope people wouldn't come to the door! My husband would ring doorbells and I would get mad at him and tell him it was too early to disturb people, lol.
in january 2009 i was disfellowshipped from jw's.
i documented the whole process and recorded it which you can find here:- death or obedience.
many people asked for english transcripts of these recordings and i'm pleased to say i now have full transcripts kindly supplied anonymously for those who wish to read them.. these will be of great help to those who have trouble hearing or cannot understand the scottish accents on the recordings.. they are available here:- the trial of a jehovah's witness the new site has it's own audio link for each transcript so you can listen along as you read.. the person who has supplied me is interested in the moral and ethical issues this case has thrown up.
Thank you for posting; marked for later.
i am wondering a few things.... when you were an active jw, did others in your congregation leave for true apostacy reasons and did you know?
when (year) did they and what year did you leave?.
how many people were in your congregation and how many left before you did (or you think left)?
I knew an elder and his wife who left. There was a talk about apostasy afterwards, so I assumed that was why they left. No one talked about them though, and I was afraid to see them around town because I thought they were evil. I can't remember if they left 8-10 years ago? No one else left the hall at the time.
They had a question about the UN issue, and the elders never got back to him and just DF'd him and his wife without them knowing. I asked my sibling who was friends with the couples daughter why they left after listening to a Steven Hassan video last year. He said "they must have had a good reason," and that made me wonder.
Growing up, the majority of kids left the religion after they gradutated. I questioned why so many left, but rationalized they must have been "weak." Then my sister left 3 years ago. I would get depressed and wonder why such a good person would die. I also wondered why most of the people who left the religion were so happy, and why the witnesses in my cong. were so dysfunctional.
I would say personal experience made me question things, and the apostates on the Internet helped me deconstruct my beliefs and realize it was all a lie. Seeing an elder leave was something that stayed in the back of my mind, but I needed to be ready to investigate my doubts first...and that took 10 years!
she came in the jw world in 1966 with her mother- she was 6 years old.
she graduated from high school in 1976. during the 90 minutes i spent with her yesterday, she mentioned that the org never said the end was coming in 1975-" it was just a few who said that and they all left after 1976- which was good- because jah needed to cleanse the kh of all who were serving with just a date in mind.. i asked her, "don't you remember the assembly talk from 1969 or 1970, where the speaker said, "stay alive until 75"- no she didn't remember.. i explained that our kh had a co tell us from the platform," brothers there is only 18 months left until armageddon- wow, she exclaimed.. i continued my story, "the po's 16 year old son quit school in 1974- to become a regular pioneer- he was held up as a fine example in the cong- and used as an example at a circuit assembly that year of someone who putting jehovah's work first.
didn't you have some who quit school to pioneer back then?".
One of my relatives asked an elder about this, and he put together a "special needs talk" about it and totally glossed over the details. He assured everyone that it was blown out of proportion and that he was around then and didn't remember it being a big deal.
aaaaggghhhh!!!
it's the co's visit this week at "my" hall.
i've been dreading this week and now the nightmare is starting to unfold :s the co just called wanting to know how i'm doing.
If you really don't feel like talking with them, you could politely tell your family that you're sorry you're not able to make it, you already made other plans. And say maybe next visit we could get together (or something vague), and then later cancel that one too. (That's what I would try, but I like avoiding things).
Good luck to you. Last year when the CO had a visit with my family I actually found it encouraging! The CO knew my parents 25 years ago, so they were catching up, seeing which friends were still in the religion...and none of them were! It was eye opening for me and helped me see something was up.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
that feels better.
thanks all for listening to things that i cannot say to my family or 'friends', the very people that i should be able to talk about anything about, without fear of being labelled as an apostate and shunned like an amharet..
ele_lux - Just remember that your parents got to choose their religion...why should it be different for you? That's how I justified it to myself.
I would like to scream at my husband for still being mentally in...I want to celebrate Chistmas darn it!!! (Totally selfish I know, but I want my kid to have fun!)
there's a code out for 23andme dna kits.
you can find out your ancestry and risks for certain diseases.
you can use a code from gizmodo to save $400!
LOL, my realtives are nutbars too come to think of it.
there's a code out for 23andme dna kits.
you can find out your ancestry and risks for certain diseases.
you can use a code from gizmodo to save $400!
There's a code out for 23andMe DNA kits. You can find out your ancestry and risks for certain diseases. You can use a code from Gizmodo to save $400! I ordered one today, here's the code link if you're interested: http://gizmodo.com/5698223/get-your-dna-analyzed-for-99
It's $99 plus shipping and you have to sign up for a 1 year account which is $5 a month too.
have you noticed that the recent trolls are now claiming that if anybody drew conclusions or made decisions based on what the society was printing, it was their own fault?.
kind of "we didn't force you to believe what we said or adjust your life because of it.
you chose to think we were teaching the end would come in <insert time range>".
Cameo-d, yes if we stay in we lose our soul. I guess in hindsight, I had doubts when I was 16 but I was too afraid to look into them. I carried those doubts for 10 years, and finally having a child caused me to face my fears so he can hopefully have a better life.
