My name means "forgotten" in Spanish. After several months of disassociation I found a guy who was disfellowshipped and who wanted to get reinstated. He was going to all the meetings for almost one year. We talked and he told me that it was very strange, but since I have been disassociated it was like I had never existed. I was in the same congregation for 15 years, but he told me that after the anouncement of my desassociation nobody ever spoke about me again. He said that it was strange. And I think that I was to remain that, "olvidado" by the Watchtower. And my avatar is a picture of me, the last day of the semester with my students of Spanish in the university (my first group) , proud of them because they had learnt good Spanish and that I could contribute to their learning. Moreover, they made some gifts and there I was, smiling and happy.
olvidado
JoinedPosts by olvidado
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71
How'd you pick your Avatar and/or Username? (Share a little bio?)
by Open mind ineven though you might think it's painfully obvious, explain why you chose your avatar and/or username.
it could help us faceless "netizens" get to know each other a little better.
open mind.
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I graduated!
by Dawn init's been a while since i've posted - been busy with family, work and school.
missed a lot of you - see a lot of new faces!
just had to get on tonight and let you old timers know that i finally did it - i graduated with my bs in computer science.
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olvidado
Congratulations. To achieve the goals we choose is a way to show the Watchtower Society that they were wrong , that we can manage in life without them and be succesful.
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Were you a "Born-In", or were you "Converted"?
by Warlock ini was converted in the early 1980's.. warlock .
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olvidado
Started studying in january 1986, baptized in august 1987. Inactive in may 2001, desassociated in august 2002.
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Memorial 'Holiday"?
by onlycurious inif the dub's don't believe in celebrating holidays, what makes the memorial different?.
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olvidado
Well, I remember that after the Memorial some of us usually go to have dinner to a restaurant or something like that. The day was supposed to be special, but it was all so "boring" that you tried to make something different of the rest of the days. And yes, I think if the elders were dressed up as easter bunnies, I would be back at the memorial to see that.
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Since You Left The "Truth" Did You Get Into Any Trouble???
by minimus inas in with the law or in the community????
were jws able to say, see!
they should've stayed in the truth!
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olvidado
yes, I decided to do one of the most evil things the Watchtower warns about: to study in a university. And I was very wicked because I got my major in History, mi minor in Geography, I went on with my Master in Teaching Spanish as a second language and that was not enough for me. As one of the worst sinners in the world, I went on and now I am in the middle of my Doctorate in Didactics. I know that I should give up studying but I cannot, I am addicted to that, I am studenholic.
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What is FAITH?
by R.Crusoe inpast and present, intelligent people have believed in things for their whole lives which we now are certain were false!.
i believe the earth is flat!.
i believe stars in the night sky are pinholes of light shining through from the next world!.
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olvidado
I think that faith can make you do the greatest deed of altruism and love for others (I am thinking of Christian missionaries going to the third world to spend their whole lives helping people there, because they have a strong faith) and can make you do the most horrible deeds in the world (for example, suicide terrorists who think that God will reward you because of that). It all depends on what you put your faith. I dont know exactly whtat faith is, but I think it is more importante to know exactly in what you believe and what consequences (good or bad) have in your life and the lives of people around you.
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Count-Down 8: How I "Let Go" of the Watchtower
by Amazing inthe process of leaving the jws cab be very different for many ex-jws.
there is no one formula that fits all.
but here is what i learned and what i did:.
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olvidado
In certain way, and although I joined another church after I left the Watchtower, I think the Watchtower is still inside me. I dont know how to explain, but even after reading "Crisis of Conscience" or reading the messages in this board for 4 years, I still feel things unresolved inside me related to JW. Maybe it is because in all of these years I didnt find anybody who experienced the same like me, I didnt know other ex-JW in my area and I couldnt deal with this topic openly. But sometimes I realise that some JWisms are still with me. For example, when I am very tired, I dont know why, but i say to myself: "Oh, I have to go out to preach." Why do I say this? I dont know, but this shows me that all these years of indoctrination are dificult to be letf behind. That is why I think, Jim, that I am glad that you have finished this process of leaving, but in my case, in a subconscious way, I am stil in point 2.
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..Do Jehovah`s Witness`s have thier own Culture?..
by OUTLAW intrue or false.....#1:jehovah`s witness`s consider themselves to be a unique group of people on the planet.....#2:in most case`s,you can identify a jehovah`s witness.
("a dub knows a dub").....#3:jwd is a wonderfull place for most of us here..because..no one else would understand us.....#4:all dubs(jw`s)regardless of status,are welcome here!!
:x-dubs/active dubs/inactive dubs/df-dubs/da-dubs/faded dubs/joined back up to fade dub`s/dub kids.....my question is:"do "jehovah`s witness`s "(regardless of status),have thier own culture?...outlaw
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olvidado
I would say yes. And while you are a witness your feel special using "theocratic" vocabulary, having special meetings and behaving in a very specific way that makes you different from the "worldly" people around you and makes you feel special. And I think this is one of the reasons why you feel that other people who never were in the organization dont understand you when you speak about the experience of being a witness. People see the Watchtower society as an organization like others, but for you it meant more, it meant a way of living, a way of thinking.
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Try this quiz
by fullofdoubtnow inwe just took this quiz.
we actually got 10 questions completely right, between the four of us, and a couple of others partly right.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/4694490.html.
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olvidado
Oh, I got 11, good mark. But I was surprised I could remember the 7 sacraments of the catholic church, it is incredible how the thing you learned as a child are still in your mind, even if you dont realise it.
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Ex-jw, inactive mormon, and now what?
by olvidado inafter 4 years of having lurking through this forum (except one time that i asked an username and used it once),i have decided to participate in this.
i am spanish, i have been living in a small town in the north of spain almos my whole life (except one year in leicester-england), but currently i am lving in germany.
my story: i have been brought up in a catholic family, but the religion was never important in my familiy.
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olvidado
Nice to meet you Isaac. You ask me about how controlling they mormons are. Well I just can tell you about my experience. You have to take into account that I am from Spain and, although the main rules are the same in all the world, the situation is not the same in a place like Spain (where mormons ara a very small minority) as it is in other places like Utaht (where most people are members of the church). You have commandments to obey, you are expected to do things in the way you are told by the church, but (at least in Spain) I didnt feel watched by the leaders of the local branch of the church like I feel controlled by the elders in the Watchtower Society. I say again that the situation in Utah will likely be different. I tried to live according to the standars of the church (no caffe or alcohol, Sabbath day, tithing, etc) but I knew I could have cheated with these things without anyone realising. But from the beginning I felt something really different between the two groups. First, I remember a misionary speaking about the bad associations he had at school and how he changed and looked for good friends while in hidgh school. I said something like: "Ah, at high school you found friends who were members of the church". And he told me: "not, they were not members, but they were good boys". I asked something like "and what do your parents think about that?". And he said that they were OK, his friend went to his house and his mother was always kind with them. For me it was something strange. Used to the idea of JW that all the people outside the organization were bad associations, it was weird for me people in a church who had friends outside the church and there was no problem. (But I say again that this missionary was from California, where I suppose that they have a more "liberal" point of view). Another point that surprised me in the mormon church was when I got to know some people excomunicated. There was a family in my branch who always came with its daughter, about thirty years old. I never felt people dealing with her in a different way that with the other people in the branch. One day, several of us went to have dinner and this girl went with us. In the middle of the conversation, she said that she had to go out the restaurant because she had to smoke. As a member, you are supposed to not smoke and I asked somebody about this girl. They told me: "Oh, no problem. She is excomunicated". OOOhhhh, I couldnt believe. Somebody excomunicated from the church and you felt no difference in the way others dealt with her. As I said before, in other places with majority of mormons the things could have been different. Maybe the mothers wouldnt like their children playing with other children not members of the church, or mormons deal with excomunicated in a different way. In Spain it was different. But, of course, the JW in Spain avoid frienships outside the organization and shun members of the family (I still remember the elder in my circuit who was like a hero for everybody because he hadnt spoken to his disfellowshipped daughter for ten years even if they lived in the same town. And he was so proud of it!!!!) I heard once the president of the church encouraging the members of being friendly with other people. I read an article in a church magazine dealing with making friendships with people outside the church. As I said, there could be people in church shunning or avoiding not members, but at least the official position of the church was one of tolerance. I never saw that kind of articles in the Watchtower or Awake. That, for me, makes a great difference. Umm, this sounds a bit apologetic of the church, I dont want to sound like that. Maybe for somebody coming from a different background, the church can be controlling. But after my experience of almost 15 years of the supercontrolling Watchtower society, the mormon church was very relaxed in that way.