Melinda Mills

Forgot to use this scripture in my first post.
Reason we go to meetings and conventions and assemblies (apparently these two are not synonyms)
(Hebrews 10:24, 25) And let us consider one another so as to incite to love and fine works, 25 not forsaking our meeting together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you see the day drawing near.
Plain and simple.
 

He does. That’s half the problem.
Working up a better answer. Time is a little tight now.

OK, great! Go ahead. Going to music now - have to perform a little piece.

Like the old saying goes here in the South (USA) ..
" There are two things that money can't buy.
True Love, and home-grown tomatoes ".

I don't know if this is really new, but I learned it's very important to love, and show love to one another because we as heck are going to need it in the future. And I'm talking about true love, the principled kind, not the sentimental kind.
 

OK, great! Go ahead. Going to music now - have to perform a little piece.

Next week DV I will know, and will tell you.   
Maybe this time your children will learn something that will show them the need to visit more often and to process information so they practice godly devotion more fully which includes checking on your parents. (mentioned somewhere in 1 Timothy.) Work in progress.

Who would pay me to watch Youtube Videos and take notes?
You interested in buying them?
I do have reasonably good handwriting!
( Hmmmmm.... I could scan them, and post them here ... photons are cheap! )

Hope you are not getting paid to take the notes.

Susan and I are watching the whole thing now on YouTube, and we are taking notes.   I hope the information is worth the effort.
" ... Law of diminishing returns ... ", as you already understand.
Besides, my face and arms are covered with poison ivy from working on my chicken coop, and it's 93 degrees out there.

Next week DV I will know, and will tell you.   
Maybe this time your children will learn something that will show them the need to visit more often and to process information so they practice godly devotion more fully which includes checking on your parents. (mentioned somewhere in 1 Timothy.) Work in progress.

All you have said, Melinda, is true, but .... (assuming you have already attended the 2019 Convention ...) the question remains,
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?
By the way ... I met my first wife at an Assembly ( she ran out on me with my best friend, an ex Bethelite and a Pioneer).
I met my second wife in Peru, and we both worked on helping to build Bethel, there ( she ran out on me for no specified reason, other than she never loved me ).
and ... I met my current and third wife, Susan,  on a JW dating website, and after six years, she is the love of my life, and my best friend.
My three children, very VERY dedicated to the Organization, and who live within a 200 mile radius, have visited me less than ONE DAY in the last ten years ( this coming December 19th), so you can see why it is important for me to find out how OTHER people process information, and ...
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?
 

Law of diminishing returns is also a fundamental principle in Economics, not only Engineering.  And you talking money already.
But remember you go to meeting every week and you don't  necessarily learn anything new, it costs clothes, gas, tyres, road tax, etc.  The Convention is just a bigger meeting.  You don't complain for regular meeting, so why complain for a more exciting, bigger meeting, even if you are eating ordinary spiritual food served in prettier plates or settings.   Where did you meet your wife?  Put yourself in the place of those who are new to the spiritual food, are now meeting other Witnesses/Christians or are even looking for mates, all these are normal things Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24.  But he said some would take no note of the spiritual things until they are swept away. 
So what can you/I do to show more  appreciation for what may begin to look ordinary?  Form a longing for the ordinary food (milk) - it is necessary to grow from infancy to maturity both literally and spiritually; it will help you to grow to salvation.  You know a year in advance and you prepare with anticipation. When it comes you show appreciation.  I already have three sets of clothes put out and a bag packed. My convention is next week. I got my lapel card today.
(1 Peter 2:2) "As newborn infants, form a longing for the unadulterated milk of the word, so that by means of it you may grow to salvation,"
Even if we really knew everything that we need to know, we are all works in progress, we need to work on what we know.  There is always room for improvement in putting on the complete suit of armour and the new personality; in setting spiritual goals.
(Ephesians 4:23, 24) And you should continue to be made new in your dominant mental attitude, 24 and should put on the new personality that was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.
Always remember that the Israelites complained about the manna, then God send the bird with lots of flesh and while they were still eating they were punished.  (Someone can enlarge on the reasons why he gave them meat and then punished them.)
(Numbers 11:31-34) 31 Then a wind from Jehovah sprang up and began driving quail from the sea and causing them to fall around the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and they were about two cubits deep on the ground. 32 So all that day and all night and all the next day, the people stayed up and gathered the quail. No one gathered less than ten hoʹmers, and they kept spreading them all around the camp for themselves. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, Jehovah’s anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking the people with a very great slaughter. 34 So they gave that place the name Kibʹroth-hat·taʹa·vah, because there they buried the people who showed selfish craving. 
Let's appreciate the spiritual manna.  Fancy a dish prepared by God himself and people were complaining about it!
If we were starving and someone gave us plain rice and water,  it would help us to survive, though it might not satisfy us completely. While we are excited about new information, we still need the milk of the word as it would help us to live to salvation. It would help us renew our goals, remind us of what we already know,  and keep us on the path to salvation as the apostle Peter said. We need manna and milk to live, grow and mature.  People would be there who are at different stages of Christian development; some still need milk, some would be there who need solid food, some would be there who need the deeper things of God to satisfy them, but we all need spiritual food.   "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need". Matt 5:3.
 
If and when we get into the Kingdom of God, we will be learning about love forever, as there will always be Jehovah, Jesus, and people to love.  Love (Agape) never fails. (1 Cor 13:8)
 

Law of diminishing returns is also a fundamental principle in Economics, not only Engineering.  And you talking money already.
But remember you go to meeting every week and you don't  necessarily learn anything new, it costs clothes, gas, tyres, road tax, etc.  The Convention is just a bigger meeting.  You don't complain for regular meeting, so why complain for a more exciting, bigger meeting, even if you are eating ordinary spiritual food served in prettier plates or settings.   Where did you meet your wife?  Put yourself in the place of those who are new to the spiritual food, are now meeting other Witnesses/Christians or are even looking for mates, all these are normal things Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24.  But he said some would take no note of the spiritual things until they are swept away. 
So what can you/I do to show more  appreciation for what may begin to look ordinary?  Form a longing for the ordinary food (milk) - it is necessary to grow from infancy to maturity both literally and spiritually; it will help you to grow to salvation.  You know a year in advance and you prepare with anticipation. When it comes you show appreciation.  I already have three sets of clothes put out and a bag packed. My convention is next week. I got my lapel card today.
(1 Peter 2:2) "As newborn infants, form a longing for the unadulterated milk of the word, so that by means of it you may grow to salvation,"
Even if we really knew everything that we need to know, we are all works in progress, we need to work on what we know.  There is always room for improvement in putting on the complete suit of armour and the new personality; in setting spiritual goals.
(Ephesians 4:23, 24) And you should continue to be made new in your dominant mental attitude, 24 and should put on the new personality that was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.
Always remember that the Israelites complained about the manna, then God send the bird with lots of flesh and while they were still eating they were punished.  (Someone can enlarge on the reasons why he gave them meat and then punished them.)
(Numbers 11:31-34) 31 Then a wind from Jehovah sprang up and began driving quail from the sea and causing them to fall around the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and they were about two cubits deep on the ground. 32 So all that day and all night and all the next day, the people stayed up and gathered the quail. No one gathered less than ten hoʹmers, and they kept spreading them all around the camp for themselves. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, Jehovah’s anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking the people with a very great slaughter. 34 So they gave that place the name Kibʹroth-hat·taʹa·vah, because there they buried the people who showed selfish craving. 
Let's appreciate the spiritual manna.  Fancy a dish prepared by God himself and people were complaining about it!
If we were starving and someone gave us plain rice and water,  it would help us to survive, though it might not satisfy us completely. While we are excited about new information, we still need the milk of the word as it would help us to live to salvation. It would help us renew our goals, remind us of what we already know,  and keep us on the path to salvation as the apostle Peter said. We need manna and milk to live, grow and mature.  People would be there who are at different stages of Christian development; some still need milk, some would be there who need solid food, some would be there who need the deeper things of God to satisfy them, but we all need spiritual food.   "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need". Matt 5:3.
 
If and when we get into the Kingdom of God, we will be learning about love forever, as there will always be Jehovah, Jesus, and people to love.  Love (Agape) never fails. (1 Cor 13:8)
 

WOW!
 
 
 
.... now what?
 
Finding Nemo - Now what_!.mp4

...it comes with the testosterone ....

Way off topic.
 

Way off topic.
 

Way off topic.
 

That is half-baked reasoning.  That can only satisfy people with partial knowledge of God and the Bible.  Won't spend any more time on this.
Where did God put Adam and Eve before his purpose was temporarily suspended when Adam and Eve sinned?
In the earth - Garden of Eden
If all of God's servants go to heaven, what would happen to God's original purpose for the earth? 
 Genesis 1: 28; Matthew 5:5. Isaiah 55:11   Earth - a paradise - will come true in God's allotted time.
Psalm 37:10,11.  Meek, mild-tempered ones will inherit the earth
Matt 11:11,12  Heavenly  hope opened up after the days of John the Baptist.
Ps 45:16  Jesus' earthly forefathers will be princes in all the earth. (Abel, Abraham, Jocob, Joseph, David, etc)

We had an elder who would tell uninterested people who lived in beautiful houses that after Armageddon he was going to live in their house after they were gone. He was such a cut-up that he could get away with these antics, but still . . .

YAWN
 

One of my hobbies is "looking" at houses on real estate websites. Of course the ones I like to browse the most are the ones in Beverly Hills. My favorite ones are the mid century modern, inside and out. Not too keen on the pretend Tuscan villas. Some houses are so terrible inside, it's as if these people have the need to buy everything and anything just because they can. But evidently they can't buy good taste....

Nice to hear of the work you did to facilitate your mother's comfort.
Sometimes just attending one of these functions is a high point in one's life in that under normal circumstances one might not get to experience it.  In 2001 I got invited to my uncle's wedding (not a Witness) (he got married for the third time to a socialite). It was the best spread I ever saw.  It was in a garden with water pools with lights shining in the water, and food stations every couple of yards - items of the richest quality. So I always remember it, and can also say I was really impressed.  That same year I  had two other very impressive invitations - one theocratic, one in connection with secular work - which I would not mention here. I always remember them. I am still wondering how I was selected.
In God's new system these things would be regular occasions, I believe, but we might still show great appreciation for an invitation to share with others. 

Many persons don't have the thinking ability  to come to the conclusion mentioned in the last sentence.  They usually learn by trial and error (often refusing to listen or without asking for advice from those with experience) and the aftermath is usually worse than when they were living a simple unpretentious life.
One has to examine himself/herself also as to why we might wish to share this kind of experience, as that in itself could also be a showy display. Are we too secretly impressed with this state of affairs?  The heart is treacherous.