I was on a date tonight, eating in a Cuban restaurant owned by JWs (they have never met me, incidentally, the food was REALLY good) when I realized that there was not just one, but two conventions in town. One was the standard english speaking district convention folks, the other was the ASL folks using the assembly hall in town for their district convention.
My date, who knows all about my JW past, tries to strike up a conversation with some of them sitting at the bar, asks them what they are in town for, etc. They just said "for a convention". She asks what kind, they said "for sign language" and left it at that.
We asked the owners, who we KNOW are JWs (but we don't personally know) if there is a convention in town because everyone is wearing nametags. They just said that they heard one was in town.
We try to ask the groups at a table near us what the nametags are for. They said they were in town for a group meeting and just so everyone could recognize each other.
Three times JWs were given an open invitation to preach and wouldn't do it.
I told my date I wouldn't be surprised to see the guy that was the best man at my wedding show up since he was an elder in an ASL congregation. Sure enough, he did. I said hello to him on my way out. He muttered hello back and sorted slowly backed away. Right before we left, my date said two guys walked in the door, saw me, pointed, talked amongst each other, look at me a few times and then left.
It amazed me, it's almost like all those wonderful examples of the nametags creating oppotunities to preach and make converts were .... inflated just a tad.
I will say, their chimichurri sauce was quite good.