Posts by NoviceLocs14

34

Oct 2017 WT again shunning instructions

by Daniel1555 in

.

NoviceLocs14

Aaannndd this is why I regret reverse shunning my JW family less and less. When I decided to distance myself from "da troof", I knew what was coming. I had seen it happen to other DFed family members and friends, and I was guilty of doing it myself. It's a shame how much control this organization desires over its members.

72

Favorite/least favorite CO's and DO's

by HereIgo in

i posted this thread sometime last year but thought i would revive it due to the new ones on the board, and to change things up a bit.

my favorite?

bro murikami, from hawaii, very humble, kind bro.

NoviceLocs14

@dugout that Bro. Dyson sounded like the same CO in my grandma's circuit. He sounded really intimidating from the stage when I would attend meetings and assemblies while visiting her. And she had some horror stories of her own about him as well.

24

Last Memorial Experiences

by NoviceLocs14 in

i'll share mine first.... i had never missed a memorial for at least a quarter of a century of my life.

i was kind of raised to believe that missing the memorial was a sin in itself.. by 2013 memorial season, i was missing most of my meetings (even though i was still technically part of my foreign language congregation), and i had just come off the pioneer list.

i still made plans to attend the memorial (god forbid if i missed that lol).. i knew that typically our memorials were around 9 pm, since we usually got last priority (being a foreign language hall and all).

NoviceLocs14

@Crazyguy I'm actually not an atheist but I have learned the error of my ways lol.

24

Last Memorial Experiences

by NoviceLocs14 in

i'll share mine first.... i had never missed a memorial for at least a quarter of a century of my life.

i was kind of raised to believe that missing the memorial was a sin in itself.. by 2013 memorial season, i was missing most of my meetings (even though i was still technically part of my foreign language congregation), and i had just come off the pioneer list.

i still made plans to attend the memorial (god forbid if i missed that lol).. i knew that typically our memorials were around 9 pm, since we usually got last priority (being a foreign language hall and all).

NoviceLocs14

I'll share mine first...

I had never missed a memorial for at least a quarter of a century of my life. I was kind of raised to believe that missing the memorial was a sin in itself.

By 2013 memorial season, I was missing most of my meetings (even though I was still technically part of my foreign language congregation), and I had just come off the pioneer list. I still made plans to attend the Memorial (God forbid if I missed that lol).

I knew that typically our memorials were around 9 pm, since we usually got last priority (being a foreign language hall and all). The problem was I hadn't been to a meeting in several weeks, so I couldn't confirm the time.

So I get to my kingdumb hall at 9, and to my horror, I see people from my congregation walking out the doors into the parking lot. It turns out, the memorial was actually at 7:30, despite 3 straight years of being later than that. I don't know how the heck I got out of that parking lot without anyone catching me.

I ended up driving all over Atlanta, where I lived at the time, praying to Jehovah all the way to help me find a Memorial to go to. The guilt I had for possibly missing the memorial was overwhelming (what a shame). I ended up driving to 3 different kingdumb halls across Atlanta before I found a memorial that was still in session (by now, it's almost 10 o'clock at night). I made it just in time to pass the emblems.

I remember actually making it to one of my meetings to field circus after that and my FS overseer giving me the side eye and cold shoulder, almost like "How DARE you miss the memorial!"

Anyway, I'd love to hear your stories...

9

Foreign Language Field and Fading

by NoviceLocs14 in

hey guys.

first of all, i want to thank everyone for being so welcoming and helpful on this forum.... i was thinking about my last 3 years as a jw when i was attending the portuguese congregation and learning that language to bring in more converts.

interestingly, we were told not to attend meetings in our native language in order to immerse ourselves in the new language.

NoviceLocs14

@Never a JW, yeah, I had to travel from Atlanta to South Florida for my Portuguese assemblies, a 10 hour drive. But it was fun in a sense, because it became a mini vacation. A lot of the JWs in that congregation were young as well, so we all tried to have as much fun as we were allowed to lol.

Shoot, I wonder if we'd get more people to leave if we tell them to join a foreign language congregation than telling them they're in a bar $#!t cray cray cult 😂

9

Foreign Language Field and Fading

by NoviceLocs14 in

hey guys.

first of all, i want to thank everyone for being so welcoming and helpful on this forum.... i was thinking about my last 3 years as a jw when i was attending the portuguese congregation and learning that language to bring in more converts.

interestingly, we were told not to attend meetings in our native language in order to immerse ourselves in the new language.

NoviceLocs14

Hey guys.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for being so welcoming and helpful on this forum...

I was thinking about my last 3 years as a JW when I was attending the Portuguese congregation and learning that language to bring in more converts. Interestingly, we were told NOT to attend meetings in our native language in order to immerse ourselves in the new language. We were only to attend Portuguese meetings, assemblies, memorials and conventions.

I later realized that this allowed me to be deprogrammed from the JW indoctrination. Since I never truly became fluent in the foreign language I was learning, I couldn't fully grasp the information on the platform. This, in addition to the fact I was secretly living a "double life" by dating my non-JW husband, made me feel less inclined to attend every single meeting.

So to those who have attended foreign language meetings or have been part of that field, what have been your experiences? And did you find that they aided or prevented you from being "de-brainwashed"?

45

What did NOT get you out?

by problemaddict 2 in

i realize this is odd, but a "how you woke up" thread and the personal stories that are told which i know we all enjoy, made me think of this.

in helping my wife and a couple others get the ball rolling, i realized the thing that resonated with me, didn't even move the needle with them.

i wanted to rail on and on about blood, because that was my conduit to waking up, but for my wife it was about shunning.

NoviceLocs14

The "apawstate" tract my well-meaning stepmom (non-JW Dad's wife) slipped in my hand as I left to go back home. I threw it away as soon as I realized it wasn't a pro-JW tract. My mom was pretty pissed about it too lol... I wished I had read through the darned thing... I wouldn't have wasted so many years slaving for a BS corporation...

18

How many JWs would offer their young daughters as a bride to a single GB member

by Chook in

i think the bragging rights of parents would rule.

i've seen cos marry girls no older than there own children when their spouse has died..

NoviceLocs14

Shoot, they'll offer their daughters to ANY older man with some type of status in the org. I know personally of a sister who was 2 years older than me (18 at the time) whose parents welcomed the proposition of marriage from an elder in his 30s. She was bad mouthed in her congregation because she turned him down and married a "convert".

Ironically, the same elder in question turned his attention to me, who was only 16 at the time. He was extremely flirtatious and sometimes inappropriate. Instead of my parents being creeped out about this, they thought it was cute and teased me about what our children would look like.

16

My disassociation story

by Roger Kirkpatrick in

following is a summary of events leading up to my decision to disassociate from jehovah's witnesses and the unforeseen results of that decision.. a young man named joel engardio produced a documentary about jehovah's witnesses called "knocking" which aired nationally on pbs.

i purchased the dvd from joel before it was even released and we exchanged emails.

joel had been raised by his jw mother and had been active in jw activities during his adolescence, but he was never baptized as a jw.

NoviceLocs14

Thanks for telling your story. Those elders sound like control freaks to me. Your discussion about the lack of freedom from a fade vs disassociation reassures me that I made the right decision to DA.

On a fun and random note, it's interesting you mentioned the Knocking documentary. Part of it was filmed in my home congregation and territory (they even used the street my parents lived on for some of the preaching scenes). My family and I were featured walking down our street in the closing credits of that film. I take pride in knowing they unknowingly filmed an "apawstate" in their movie ;)

9

What the craziest thing you have heard of someone hauled before a judicial committee for ?

by Chook in

anything that's true

NoviceLocs14

When I was in my preteens, my family showed up to the KH for a meeting one evening to find that the tiny windows we had on the doors were shattered. Turns out a sister who had mental health issues and marital problems had done the deed. From what I understood, the elders talked to her and she agreed to take her medication, which she was not doing before.

A couple of weeks later, the same sister showed up to the KH, proceeded to disrobe herself, and started pulling the flowers out of the flower bed of the adjoining CO home. Needless to say, the CO was terrified. Police were called, and she was arrested. She was then Df'ed for not keeping her promise to stay on her meds.

Not too long after that we came to the meeting to find one handle missing on each of the doubles doors to the KH. Apparently the sister, angered by her disfellowshipping, threatened to burn down the hall while people were in it.

In hindsight, I feel bad for the sister though. She needed immediate and intense mental health care, and no one stepped up to help her get that (although at least the elders told her to take her meds, which was surprising).