Being an elder or servant gave you more opportunities to get your time in, for example, stopping at all the sickly old sister's houses. And of course they were glad to see you, except they didn't know you were just trying to get your time in with as little effort as possible.
"Slogging" - the top speed at which JWs go door to door
by LovesDubs 37 Replies latest jw friends
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under_believer
Daniel-p, you can't count time for calling on or studying with people who are baptized. It's unlikely those "servants" were doing that and counting the time.
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Satanus
All your comments bring back memories. Back near the beginning of my door to door activity, young and full of nervous energy, i had the privilege of working w a co. I tended to bounce from one door to the next. He quickly put a stop to that. He explained about how we had to relax, take our time, or something like that.
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blindersoff
Under-b
You also 'can't' pad your service report
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under_believer
Blidersoff, good point, and I make no doubt that the practice does happen. But it was rare-to-unheard-of among elders and ministerial servants I was acquainted with (I was an MS for a couple years and my father was an elder for virtually my entire life) to count time for ministering to the flock. In fact it was occasionaly a bone of contention--many "servants" felt that they should be able to count time for that activity.
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james_woods
We were allowed (and encouraged) to count time for the giving the "Public Talk". There were not usually any non-witness people there, but that did not matter. As I recall, a funeral was also fair game. We even counted time for buying the wine for memorial so long as you told the liquor store guy what you were going to use it for - and to make sure it was "Kosher" style wine.
I knew several Elders who got all their time this way, padded up a little with claims of "incidental witnessing" at their secular jobs.
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daniel-p
"Daniel-p, you can't count time for calling on or studying with people who are baptized. It's unlikely those "servants" were doing that and counting the time."
'Those servants' were myself with any other elder who I may have been out with that day. You're talking to someone who spent 4 years reg. pioneering as well as a stint at Bethel. Sure, you're not supposed to count time talking to a babtized person, but visiting the infirm and elderly was considered to be a part of our Kingdom service. Frankly speaking, it was my favorite part of it, since my concerns at least were genuine and we were visiting someone who really apreciated the visit. And OF COURSE we counted the time. -
serotonin_wraith
I hated the preaching, but one memory which sticks out for me like a sore thumb was when I was around 15, and a girl I had a huge crush on in school was going around the same area with an Avon (perfume etc) brochure or something, and there was no way to avoid her. I think she smiled or something, and I thought 'Oh God just kill me now!' Add to that I was with my Dad and if he knew I liked her I'd have had to have a talk with the elders to get the sinful thoughts out of my head, I wished the ground would swallow me up.
Also knocking on the door and having someone from school answer wasn't the best situation to be in. I'd ask to speak to their parents instead.
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Virgochik
My Mom had a friend who had all her return visits (back calls, then) out in the country. She had a big Plymouth station wagon, and I rode in the back breathing the sweet country air. We stopped to pick flowers, rest in the shade, and other time wasters. But before we left the Hall for this hard day of witnessing, a kid of eleven or so had to say the prayer. All the sisters had to dig in their purses for proper head coverings, and out came the McDonald's napkins. Ah, the memories!
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daniel-p
"We were allowed (and encouraged) to count time for the giving the "Public Talk""
I was also told to count 1 hour for this, because there were many un-babtized among the audience. Counting time was a major bone of conention within the pioneer ranks when I was a pioneer because everyone had a different idea about it. We had several talks with the CO about it, until he finally just told all us pioneers to "don't ask, don't tell" how we counted our time. I remember him getting flustered by the pettiness of some of the sisters, them thinking that at 11:55AM they needed one more call to get that last 5 minutes.
Me and other brothers of course counted our time visiting the friends since it was often just a matter of stopping by at trailer #23 while out doing the territory.
As far as how I counted my time when i was a pioneer, I started it at 9AM and ended it when I got home. I counted all the breaks because we did very rural territory and if you were a real stickler about it, you would NEVER get your time in because pioneering in that kind of territory is just all about riding around in the backseat, chatting.