nevaagain

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Posts by nevaagain

• 
  23

  ... and keep fighting

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  last week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.

  some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.

  so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.

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  nevaagain

  Last week we had the COs visit and I wanted to share my experiences with you. Some background info on me, I know
  TTATT and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies. So right now I am in just to keep the status quo. Both of us are born in with every family member being in the truth ...
  
  Anyway about the CO visit, this is the second time and at the same time it is going to be the last time we have this particular CO couple, because of circuit changes (dont JWs love to juggle around with the circuits?!?) This time our CO couple was accompanied with a second couple, apparently the substitute CO also needs to "practise" from time to time.
  
  So my wife wanted to invite them for lunch. At first I was a little bit hesitated to invite them, but my wife
  as I said being 100% commited to the truth wanted to invite them and since my wife already sees me an apostate
  (tried to woke my wife up, didnt work but we have some kind of truce, thats going to be a different story)
  so I didnt say no. I also didnt want to stirr anything up
  
  So they came for lunch, and after a while, the substitute CO brought the topic about child abuse in
  Australia up. I wanted to say something but I remained tight lipped, not to reveal more than I would possibly know.
  My wife looked at me with a WTF face - awhile ago I had already told her about the cases that the WT
  lost in the US and we didnt really expect that topic being brought up at our homes from one of the CO, albeit
  the substitude CO but still!
  
  The real CO tried to play it down saying that it was mostly worldly ppl who abuse witness kids, then his wife
  weighted in, saying that she knows ppl in every congregation who were abused as a kids and that the problem
  is indeed widespread. The substitude added that it is indeed the WT being on trial here, because they were
  apperently trying to keep the brothers from going to the authorities. I think the substitude CO repeated that
  a few times!
  
  Now the real CO tried to shoot it down, saying that the elders would never tell the parents not to go to the
  police and the allegations have no claim. I knew it was dangerous but I wanted to say something, so I said.
  Maybe, just maybe some elders tried to keep it in the congregation and told the parents not to go to the police.
  The real CO was baffled! The substitude agreed with me and even added that he personally knows cases like that.
  
  We changed topic after that, but what is still puzzling me is, why did the substitude bring up that topic?!?
  Keep in mind, the real CO and the substitude, they didnt know each other before and possibly the first
  time they were eating together was at our place, so maybe the substitude was testing the waters with the CO?
  Maybe he knows the TTATT? I know if I would have brought up that topic my wife would have looked mad at me,
  but the substitudes wife was even participating at that topic!
  
  CO Week went over quick (thankfully for that). Went to both of the field service meetings on saturday. So funny,
  they are over after 5 minutes they dont even make sense anymore. Our parking lot was still occupied from
  the brothers who had their field service meeting before us, waited till they were gone so we can park. Went into
  the meeting two minutes late and it was already half finished!
  
  Sunday after the meeting we went to lunch with the both CO couples. After we were finished and the (real) CO
  couples wanted to leave, they hugged us both (my wife and me) said some words and then added "... and keep fighting"
  
  If that is not cult speak, what is?!?!
• 
  20

  Why some smart people believe the JWs/Bible

  by jws in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i consider myself smart.

  go ahead, laugh.

  i have a sense of humor too.. but i grew up a jw and also believed in the bible.

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  nevaagain

  even though i wouldnt consider myself to be the smartest on the planet, i wouldnt consider myself to be dumb as well. but your story @jws sounds similar to mine, except the fact that i am still in, anyway.

  Before i got baptized my elder dad who I consider to be book smart (he reads a lot!!!, even worldly literature!!!) used to tell me, that i should research if thats the truth. So I asked him, where should I start with my research, and he would always point to the bible and the jw literature.
  

  But see, being at the age of 13/14/15 I had better things to do that spend my free time doing research in the bible when I was barely doing my homework because of other interests.

  But kudos to my dad for not pushing me to get baptized while everybody else was, especially my mom who I love a lot, but she is not the brightest person.

  So reasons why I got baptized:

  - To get everybody who was pushing me to get baptised off my back (that was every person who wanted to go out in service with me and my mom)
  - Putting a stop to the study with my parents
  - Make my parents proud
  

  Thats how I got baptized at the age of 15. Add the fact that my friends back then were also getting baptized I being shy back then, I didnt want to do that step alone.

  Speaking about my book smart dad, I had a lot of discussions about 607/1914 and the generation changes with my dad. Sometimes he appears open minded and sometimes he appears as a cult member, which tells me that he probably also has his doubts. Regarding 607 he said that he believes that the WTS did their research and probably everybody else is wrong. He doesnt like the new teaching regarding the generation, he thinks it is way too complicated and the average rink and file member would never understand it. But at the end of the day, he told me with his own words "even if the wts is wrong, where should we go?"

  and i thinkt thats the reason that even some smart members stay

  sidenote: isnt it funny that before you are allowed to get baptized they ask you 100+ questions but you can still get baptized for all the wrong reasons?
  
• 
  2

  Have you ever had a JW role model?

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the jw hero thread motivated me to make this thread.

  so when you were still in, did you have a role model which was also a jw?.

  when i was young (pre school) my parents were friends with another young couple, which also happaned to live nearby.

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  nevaagain

  The JW Hero thread motivated me to make this thread. So when you were still in, did you have a role model which was also a JW?
  

  When I was young (pre school) my parents were friends with another young couple, which also happaned to live nearby. I remember us doing a lot with them, they also happaned to have a boy in my age. I remember him as very kind to me, sometimes bringing me even presents when he and his family came for a visit (thats how I got my first Walkman).

  He was an elder who gave enthusiastic talks which also were easy to follow, he was also good as a dad, often doing stuff with his kids and he also had a well paid job. He would not even hesitate to move around for better paid jobs.
  

  He was my JW role model for a very long time... I also wanted to become like him, successful in the truth and build also a nice carreer for me.
  

  Of course everything changed ... as he became richer he also became a jerk. He was still giving good talks from the platform at conventions but he would also flaunt around his newest cellphones/cars whatever... and then his talks also stopped when he cheated on his wife during a shepherding call where he visited the sister alone ...
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  33

  Is door to door activity over?

  by badcompany in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious about others experience.

  i've been living just a few miles from a kingdom hall for 9 years.

  i've been called on 0 times.

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  nevaagain

  D2D is not over but it is on the demise that is true. In my old congregation(s) only a handfull of witnesses came to the field service meeting on Saturday and I doubt the others went to service without going to the field service.

  In this congregation we are in at the moment, even though more come to the field service, many just want to do "easy" witnessing. We have a lot of interested ones coming to the congregation with no plans of getting baptized, they have kids, often more than three. They always want a witness to study with them. 80% who come to the (new and improved 5 - 7 minute) field service meeting go studies and maybe only the 20% are going from door to door.

  From my own experience, whenever a pioneer asks me to go to service with him, it is always a study or a return visit/magazine route thing. Actually, the first time I went with an elder to preach when we relocated congregations and he saw that I was taking him to a territory with zero adresses but lots of small houses and this meant a lot of searching, he deemed it time wasting and we should have gone into the city and did street witnessing instead.

  Then we have the zealot pioneers which embraced social networks and probably count time on there as well. I even heard of witnesses conducting studies over Skype!
  

  So yeah Witnesses try avoid door to door.
  

  But my report might not be accurate as I am not in a congregation where they speak the local language.
  
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  21

  1 Meeting for each of your fingers ? ? ?

  by william draper in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  anybody remember how this became a doctrine , years ago , we were at the meetings so that out fingers would be learning something .

  ..

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  nevaagain

  they could still argue that family worship is like the fifth meeting. anyway, i was always against 5 meetings. for me it was a huge burden to have to go to two meetings during a week. i was always missing the book study and whenever someone would question my behaviour i would say, that if the organization would axe a meeting it would be that one. i think attendence of that meeting was down to 50% or so. and at the end i was right!
  
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  42

  Something a CO once said.

  by cappytan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "there are only three reasons you should miss a meeting.

  fever, fracture or funeral.

  everything else is a sorry excuse.

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  nevaagain

  Our last CO spoke about meeting attendence in his last visit. He said something in this effect that we should not use holidays as an excuse to not go to meetings. That means, that we should check before we visit a country, if we could go to meetings there. And again, the only excuse to miss a meeting would be sickness. His excuse was, that if we missed a meeting and then Armageddon comes and we are banned, we wouldnt know where our next meeting would be.
  

  Now my wife got scared, we wanted to go a remote place again and now she wants to make sure that we can go to meetings there.
  
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  9

  Memorial - Most depressing holiday ever?

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we - as in we jws - say that the memorial is our only holiday.back in my young days when i was still living at home, my mom would buy us (or as we got older and made our own money, make us buy) new suits for the memorial.

  my mom would put on her best dress which she probably only bought for the memorial.

  she would say, it is our only holiday so we should dress special for it.

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  nevaagain

  @TheOldHippie

  None of the things you mentioned, but it also should not be like a meeting. Why does everything have to follow the pattern of a meeting?
  
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  9

  Memorial - Most depressing holiday ever?

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we - as in we jws - say that the memorial is our only holiday.back in my young days when i was still living at home, my mom would buy us (or as we got older and made our own money, make us buy) new suits for the memorial.

  my mom would put on her best dress which she probably only bought for the memorial.

  she would say, it is our only holiday so we should dress special for it.

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  nevaagain

  For a reason my lest text got cut, so here it is again (this time without paragraphs as there seems to be a bug)
  

  We - as in we JWs - say that the memorial is our only holiday.
  Back in my young days when I was still living at home, my mom would buy us (or as we got older and made our own money, make us buy) new suits for the memorial. My mom would put on her best dress which she probably only bought for the memorial. She would say, it is our only holiday so we should dress special for it. I would always (even as a youngling) question that behavior but my mom would say, worldly people have Christmas; we have the memorial of Jesus Christ’s death.
  When I was still young (about 5 or so) I was always curious about the memorial. I wanted to see what is going to happen, since it was such a big holiday for us and they would always make such a big fuss about it. Sometimes we even had to find a different hall, because our hall was occupied by other congregations. Once I remember, we held our memorial in a hall fully decorated with Easter motives.
  But really nothing exciting happens, every year it is the same boring procedure. There is a song at the beginning and a song at the end, just like at meetings. There is a talk in the middle, just like at meetings. Unless you are anointed, you cannot touch the bread and the wine.
  I see many interested ones or unfaithful spouses in the audience, many faders, many who got disfellowshipped, many who have studied for 20 years but still unbaptized. I still don’t get why a single one of those groups would attend a memorial or why I should go out of my away and invite non Witnesses to this "holiday" or special day. Because really, it is nothing special.
  I get why it is important for us JWs, but I am not sure if we are doing it right. For me it is a very depressing day and I am happy that it is over, at least for yet another year.
  So what’s so special about the "special talk" again?
  
• 
  9

  Memorial - Most depressing holiday ever?

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we - as in we jws - say that the memorial is our only holiday.back in my young days when i was still living at home, my mom would buy us (or as we got older and made our own money, make us buy) new suits for the memorial.

  my mom would put on her best dress which she probably only bought for the memorial.

  she would say, it is our only holiday so we should dress special for it.

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  nevaagain

  We - as in we JWs - say that the memorial is our only holiday.
  
  Back in my young days when I was still living at home, my mom would buy us (or as we got older and made our own money, make us buy) new suits for the memorial. My mom would put on her best dress which she probably only bought for the memorial. She would say, it is our only holiday so we should dress special for it. I would always (even as a youngling) question that behavior but my mom would say, worldly people have Christmas; we have the memorial of Jesus Christ’s death.
• 
  14

  Have you met people in the "world" who are more commited to their christian believes than JWs?

  by nevaagain in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i met a coworker at my work who was even more commited to his religion then almost anybody i had seen in the jw mids yet.

  whenever we went for lunch, he would do a little prayer first, he didnt care if anybody would take notice of him.

  he does not curse, never!

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  nevaagain

  i want to ask him if they practice shunning, or what happens if someone sins. if they dont have shunning practices then i doubt you can compare it to a cult. for me it looks like they found a way to make meetings more interesting.

  another thing: anybody can contribute songs in his church, they use a beamer to show them on a wall, so not everybody needs a song book. not a bad idea if you ask me, seeing as we need yet another song book for the three new songs