Regular pioneer. I hated it. I did it because my congregation was one of those that had a 'good' reputation, and well.....I just couldn't sit on the sidelines now could I ?
At least 7-8 brothers out of like 10 of us went off to Bethel. I knew thats not what I wanted to do. I went to the Gilead meeting at an DC and thankfully I had a medical condition ( diabetes ) and they said right off the bat,that would probably disqualify me.
Pioneering sucked. I had no car,no job. I was in college full-time and milked that as much as I could, saying I had classes,exams,BS,etc I realized that most of the people I knew wouldn't give a rats aS$ about me if I weren't a pioneer. I did it to fit in and get people off my back about regular pioneering or going to Bethel. When people said lets work some more territory I secretly cursed them under my breath. This is back when it was 90 hours and we were doing 100 like a bunch of dummies,mainly to impress people. I was getting up at 5am starting at 6 and working until 12/1pm,then going to class on some days. Man I was TIRED. I envied my friends who did have full-time or part-time jobs. But as soon as I could I loaded up on 16/17 credit hours a semester. I HATED having to be the first one to meet the group.....and then usually lead out the group. I liked regulars because they stuck with their partners. Got your own territory ? Good, get the hell out of here. Got your own car group ? Sweet,be gone. I wanted to come in late. Sit in the back and let some other brother do the text and ask all the questions.
To be honest, I was looking foward to pioneer school because supposedly there were always some pretty good looking 'chicks' there. Boy I really get a chuckle out of what I thought back then. It's beyond crazy and stupid. The longest two weeks of my life. I got tired of people asking me
"Oooooh you went to pioneer school ?" "Wow, tell me all about !" Even though I was a pioneer it was never as big a deal to me as some others made it out to be. I did because I felt I had to. Not too mention all the brothers and sisters stopped bugging me about when I was going to put my Bethel application in. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........Never ?
When I came off the list it was like what the hell ? What did you do ? Like had you had to do something bad in order to come off.
I did everything I could. Though I never got to be MS, I read at the bookstudy from time to time ( I was being groomed,but moved right before I think they were going to appoint me. At least this what a former elder told me after I moved ) I did magazine and book room. I worked the mics. Aisle and stage. The ABSOLUTE WORST thing I did was assist the school overseer. On Monday nights before the school I had a copy of the TMS schedule just like him. I would hand out the slips every week and all. Anyhow, I had to call everyone on the schedule and ask if they were giving their talk the next night. I HATED that. you could tell most were busy and YES, they were going to do it,so leave them alone. I hated when brothers back out because if I were able to give it........I wound up doing the talk. Except I hadn't studied or read any of the material myself, so I usually pulled the talk out of my a%$ in the bathroom a few minutes before.
