by minimus 80 Replies latest jw friends
I rounded everything up to the nearest 5 hour mark. If I had less than 5 hours I would report 5. If I had more than five but less than 10 I would report 10 hours. Same thing with mags.
If I had more than 10 hours....oh wait.... I never had more than 10 hours.
I honestly and truly did report accurate field service time. It is JUST ONE of the reasons why I found pioneering to be so crushingly difficult. Once a C.O. told me that I could just "start my time" when I left the hall, instead of the moment I knocked on the first door. I remember looking at him like he was from another planet.
I would regularly count out 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever, for breaks. I'd stay out until 12:30 or 12:45 to make sure I got my two hours for Saturday, or until 17:30 or 18:00 on weekdays.
Those of us who take everything seriously have a much harder time and much farther to fall when we come out of the Watchtower.
I'm with under_believer on this one. I took everything so seriously. It was the truth after all. It sucks to find out I was one of the few who actually played by the rules. I probably could have avoided the two DFings (and the constant reminders from family members of how I ruined the family by getting DF'd, even though I've been reinstated for a year-and-a-half now) had I not thought I had to turn myself in repeatedly. But actually here's something that cracks me up: As I was starting to fade and meeting attendance was less and less, my bookstudy overseer was always approaching me and asking for my field service time. Which I thought was so completely ridiculous as he was my bookstudy overseer he surely knew I wasn't in service at all. I felt like it was his way of telling me what a f*ck-up I am. I wasn't brave enough to speak up to him and tell him how I truly felt. So I just put a big ZERO on the time slip he handed me, handed it back to him, smiled, and said, "Thanks." Walked away. He never asked me for my time again after that. I'm sure that was viewed by my elders as a sign of my terrible attitude. Oh well. I am always truthful, to a fault. I considered just making up a number to get him off my back, but somehow the 0 was much more satisfying - like saying "I'm not going in your stupid field service anymore."
Unfortunately I did. If I had known that I could fudge the hours a bit, I'd be a pioneer every month!
There was one month when I was sick and didn't go out at all. The MS called me when I didn't report my time, and I told him the truth: I was sick and didn't go out in service that month. He said "I'll put you down for 1 hour, ok? that will keep the pressure off." I'm not sure if he meant pressure on me or on him (I'm inclined to believe the latter.)
Those of us who take everything seriously have a much harder time and much farther to fall when we come out of the Watchtower.So true.
2 funny stories:
My dad worked 65 hours a week at his job and apparently expanded his time. Every vacation he got was spent serving at the assemblies. My mother turned him in to the PO, and a meeting was held in our living room while we were sent outside. My brothers and I pressed our ears to the window and heard the PO ask my Mom "What are you, the spiritual police?" The PO let him be. (very early 70's)....my mother felt it her duty to reiterate this many times after my dad left the truth as a big Apostate.
My cousin, a wife of a current elder as not gone out in field service for over 7 years. He is the service overseer and has continually put her in for 6 hours a month to avoid problems. The poor girl has finally asked him to leave after years of abuse, ......to quote her sister, "Its amazing these elders can run other peoples lives and when they are called on something, suddenly, can't zip up their own pants.
r.
Yes I did. The majority of the year it was a big fat 0 hours. But every summer I would HAVE to pioneer *glare* Was it 60 hours at one point you had to get? I missed it by 30 minutes and refused to lie to say I got it in. (Despite being told by others that they were *sure* I most have gotten it in)
I may be a lot of things but I'm not a liar.
Dams
I allways wanted to, but only pulled through a handfull of times.
There was this point when I was a regular pioneer and having a really hard time keeping up because all of the other JWs wasted time, took long breaks, and basically did everything in their lazy ass power to keep from getting honest time. I just started writing down 68, 72, 70 hours per month. Nobody asked, nobody cared including me.
MOST elders, ms,s and pioneers that I knew fudged.
If I did 23 hours, I wrote 23 hours
If I did 14 hours, I wrote 14 hours
If I did 8 hours, I wrote 10 hours
If I did 2 hours, I wrote 8 hours
If I did nothing, I wrote 4 hours Don't want to be irregular now.....
Regarding either being irregular or not getting at least 10 hrs. per month, all the servants or wannabes lied. You'd see guys go away on vacation for 3 weeks and put in 20 hrs! Yeah right!
I did as accurately as possible. I did not include break time and since I didn't have time to go out with all the other pioneers who were mostly women on welfare, retired folk, and those who owned their own business and could flex their work schedule and young adults living at home with parents (I worked full time and sometimes had another job to make ends meet and was lucky to actually make all the meetings) so I was doing good to actually get the national hours in even though I didn't look as spiritual on paper as some of the others in the cong.
