I Can’t believe it. Armageddon is over, and the new system has begun. Paradise - I made it. To be honest, I thought I would never see this day, but here I am. 

As soon as we all met up down at the Kingdom Hall, we danced and celebrated for a while, but the Elders soon put a stop to that. They explained that this behavior was inappropriate, and one even suggested that it might stumble someone, until it was pointed out that there was no one left alive to stumble. We had a good laugh at this! Still, we wanted to do what the Elders said, so that we were in full obedience to the new system. We knew that all of eternity lay before us, and that this Earth was ours at last.

We noticed that a few people from the congregation did not show up as expected, so we assume that they were secret sinners, and got killed as they should have. One brother did show up the second day because he spent the first day staying with his family, and I felt bad about speculating about why he got killed when it turned out he didn’t after all.

The Elders from the local congregations have been in big meeting all day, and said they would let us know what was going on when they were finished. We kept busy looking around through the rich people’s houses up on Oak Hill, and driving around in the expensive cars. I found the house of a rich person who mush have been about my size, so I took some of his clothes to wear until we could get down to the mall and do some serious ‘shopping’. This guy had a big swing set in his back yard, and the house was full of toys, so I guess he had a bunch of kids. If he really loved his kids, he would have taken them to the Kingdom Hall, and they would be alive now, instead of dead like they deserved.

After their meeting, the elders announced that we should begin immediately to purge what remained of the old world and its influences, and told us to organize a committee to go from building to building and destroy any bad influences, especially the music and books from the old system. There was so much to destroy that we though it best simply to burn all the libraries, shopping centers, and warehouses. I was assigned to the team that burned the City Center Mall and the main branch of the library that night. It was fun at first, but it became work after a while, especially at the library where we had to pile up the books so they would all burn. We joined hands and sang Kingdom Songs around the book fires, giving thanks for what had been given to us.

We set up an old college dormitory to stay in so we could all be together until we get things sorted out. Women stayed at one side of the building, men at the other, and married couples in between. The married couples took turns standing watch at night. It took us a while to clean the place up, and get rid of all the filthy art and worldly books that seemed to be everywhere. After we sprayed all the walls with a nice coat of ivory paint, it looked very pretty. We call the place New World Hall.

More Elder meetings. They asked us to turn in our Bibles for now, since it was written for the old system, and that we could expect a new guidebook to be provided to us all very soon.

The generators ran out of gas today, so a few of us set out to find some place where we could get more fuel. It was harder than I thought it would be, because none of the gas pumps at the stations would work without electricity, and we didn’t have electricity without the generators running. My friend Tony decided that the best way to get gas way to bash a hole in the side of one of those big tanks down by the waterfront, and catch as much gas as we needed in a bucket. The first tank we opened had diesel or something in it, so we just let that drain off into the water until somebody can get down there and patch it up. We are sure Jehovah has some system in place for cleaning up the water, so we don’t have to worry about pollution any more.

 

 

The Elders had to give some sister from the Women’s Complex a caining after her floor leader reported that she questioned the new dress regulations. Jehovah’s mercy and goodness must never be taken for granted, we told her, and she seemed to take her punishment in the proper spirit. Another brother was caned for eating some burgers he had been keeping in a freezer. He thought they would go to waste otherwise, but that’s not the point; we must obey the new PureFood dietary regulations if we are to prosper in this new system. They tell us that we can get by with much less protein once our bodies adjust to the new diet, but I am still kind of dizzy most of the time. I am sure it will pass.

There is a public address by the Elders every night now. We are all "Strongly Encouraged" to attend, which means we are in trouble if we don’t. They usually have some announcements, followed by work schedules and progress reports. At the end, they have the disciplinary announcements, which are getting to be a bigger part of the meeting every time, especially since they implemented random home inspections. Tonight they told about a brother who was caught hoarding some old-system music. During his questioning he said he thought that classical music was not sinful, but the Elders said that not knowing the rules was another sin! They confiscated and destroyed the music, and assigned the brother to punishment detail and a mild caning, since it was his first offense, and he was fairly old. The lesson we should learn is that the old things have passed away, and we should think of them no longer.

The Elders also announced the appointment of Brother Conners as our Regional Overseer, with the clear understanding that he would step aside as soon as we received further instructions from Brooklyn. Brother Conners asked us to address him as Leader Conners (or just High Leader) to avoid confusion with the other brothers, and moved into one of the larger houses on Campus to be more accessible to all who may need to contact him. A few brothers were assigned to help Leader Conners out with day-to-day tasks, so he was able to devote more time to establishing the new society. To help make them easier for us to identify, these brothers will be wearing tan shirts with gold braid on the sleeves from now on. 

As part of his formal address to the New Brotherhood (as we are now called), High Leader also told us to be wary of contact with any brothers and sisters that we did not know, until we were sure that they were being as vigilant as we were in regards to keeping our new civilization pure. 

The next morning, we set up a system using walkie-talkies to keep our area secure, and stay on the lookout for any worldly people or old-world sympathizers who may try to overthrow the Theocracy. High Leader Conners allowed those of us on Perimeter Detail to carry guns like his assistants, since some of the wild animals might not yet have gotten "reeducated" yet. We also set up a Theocratic Warfare Target Range, where we could practice shooting. We used pictures of evil people from the old system for targets; I shot at a picture of Mother Theresa, and some of the other guys used pictures of the Pope and statues we took from churches. Some of those statues were so old that they just turned to powder with one shot. It was cool!

I have been assigned to security detail at the Welcoming Center, which is in the building just this side of the bridge leading from the old city. We covered the security building with bushes and camouflage so that any Worlders who try sneaking in will not see us, and we can get the jump on them. During my first week there, we had to shoot one worldly person who came into our zone, but only after making very sure that he was indeed worldly. We made up this test where we asked him about the daily text from the day before the Tribulation began, and he said he "could not remember it" Yea, sure. My zone supervisor said that it did not matter if we made a mistake anyway, since Jehovah could just resurrect him if he was OK, and then we would just apologize for the mistake.

High Leader mentioned our actions during his next address, and said that it was a "fine example of Theocratic Diligence." Tony teased me because High Leader pronounced my name wrong, even though he was in my congregation in the old system. 

A car drove up to the welcoming center last night, with some brothers who said they were from Bethel. We escorted them into the Administrative Security Complex, where they will stay until High Leader can see them. If they are REALLY from Brooklyn, and not impostors, I am sure that High Leader will do as they ask, and Jehovah’s blessing will be upon us.

Still no work from High Leader about the visitors from Brooklyn, so I guess they were not really from there. Their car was moved around to the back of the Administrative Security building, but I haven’t seen any of them since.

One of the Council Elders announced that his wife would be setting up a new committee to review and approve all housing to be sure that everything is done according to guidelines. They want to be sure that no one shows a lack of modesty in their choice of paint or decor. One couple already had to repaint their house and take down some big bushes they had planted out front. It was the same house they had lived in for about 20 years, and they probably thought the guidelines didn’t apply to them. They were always that kind of people though, and still have a reputation for being troublemakers. Security issued a observation notice about them a while ago, so we keep a close eye on them anyway. One of the guys wanted to hide a camera in their bedroom and videotape what goes on in there, but our supervisor said that the sound recording we already have there was enough for now. 

My friend Tony was playing around with this race car he found, when the gas tank blew up and burned him real bad. None of us had any idea what to do, since we all thought that we couldn’t even get hurt any more. So, one of High Leader’s Attendants decided that the best thing to do was just kill Tony, and let Jehovah resurrect him in better shape. I didn’t know what to say, but the Attendant went ahead and shot Tony, and then they took his body back to the compound where it will probably get resurrected in a day or two. 

We are still waiting for the resurrected people (and a new Tony) to show up, but High Leader told us that they will be here shortly. High Leader also said that he will begin assigning permanent housing soon, so we can move out of the dorm rooms. Right now, only Level V Elders and above can live off-site, but we are all going to be getting a house eventually. 

I can’t believe what happened today! One of my buddies from work got hauled off to AdComm today. They said he was practicing OldThink, and would be counseled. I think the real reason was that one of his roommates saw him in bed with what looked like an erection, but it might have just been the way the blankets were crumpled. Still, we have to report any indications of lustful desire, and having one of those is about as much evidence as anyone needs. Anybody that ever goes for counseling is never seen again, but the brothers told us it is because they are reassigned to another area. Personally, I think the "other area" is that fenced-off swamp where you see AdComm vehicles going late at night.

High Leader introduced the language guidelines today. Since there were so many people talking different languages, it got real hard to understand everybody so Leader decided to make English mandatory for all. He also introduced the List of Approved Words, which his staff has been working on for a few weeks. The idea is to get rid of all unnecessary or confusing words, and make speaking easier and more Theocratic. Did you know how many extra words there are for "good"? Tons! From now on, if we want to that something is good, we just say it is good; simple as that. If it is extra good, we just say "Double Good", or "Double Plus Good"; all simple words, and all easy to understand. We have a month to submit any suggestions for words that should be included in the Word List, and after that we will receive a reproof point every time we use a non-good word. We should all be using only TheoTalk from now on.

Also, we learned that the New Guidelines are not going to be distributed to everyone, just to Elders Level VI and above. This goes along with the plan to reduce the amount of information that is in written form. Since books can be taken out of context, and caused such trouble during OldSys, we will be eliminating as many of them as we can, and storing the important ones for reference within the Elder’s Library. The spoken work is purer of spirit, and can be mastered by all. 

I may have to start hiding this diary soon, since we get a lot of questions if we are caught with anything that is written, or (even worse) if we write something ourselves. It is even getting hard to find a pen or pencil anywhere since the kids started collecting them during the Youth Purification Campaign. I am sure that The Elders would not mind my keeping this diary (since it is for my own use), but better safe than sorry.

I don’t know if anyone else feels the same way as I do, but I wish there was a bit more peace and quiet during the day. Every few feet througout the compound, they have these public-address speakers playing with one announcement after another, from dawn until lights-out. Between announcements they play music, but between you and me, it really sucks; nothing but Kingdom Songs. What’s worse, in the background of the music you can almost hear someone speaking, but can’t quite make out what they are saying. It’s real creepy.

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