May 28, 2012

 Thomas Stokoe
To everettyoung@juno.com, cjy39@comcast.net

Hello:
Today is Monday, a sunny warm day.  Supposedly, June and July are winter months but there's not much sign of winter yet.  Sister S. spent P Day packing up everything.   Saturday we bought a bed and end table for the spare bedroom in our new flat.  As of June 1st we will be able to lodge senior couples who come to P.E. for activities and friends and family who come to visit.   The elders will help us move after district meeting on Friday.

I went to Kwamagxaki ward to meet a student and get a couple of his signed application papers for a PEF loan.  While there I met the ward employment specialist who has a daughter interested in obtaining a loan for school.  He showed me a copy machine that one of the missionary couples got for his office.  He was very happy to  have received it but didn't know how it worked.  He wanted to know how to copy things.  So I showed him and he was happy to learn.  Except, there was no ink in the cartridges.  So I went and bought a couple of ink cartridges and showed him how to put them in and he was able to make some color copies.  He was so happy.  Really happy.  I also gave him some food for lunch.  He was a very appreciative man.  I asked him his name and he said, "Thobile Headman Ntsetha.  My mother named me Headman at birth.  So I was born Headman and will die Headman."

Next Diane and I went to a store like Costco and she bought a desk for our new office. They will assemble it and deliver this Friday.  I talked to the delivery truck driver.  He is a Brown.  As you know in this country people are referred to as a Black, a Brown or a White.  I asked him his name and he said, "My name is Peter, Peter Benjamin.  My last name is Haynes.  But my nickname is Stan."  So I said, "If I were to go to the back of the store where your department is and ask your fellow workers, "I am looking for Peter.  Do you know where he is?  Could they help me?"  He said no because no one knows me as Peter only as Stan.  "What say I asked for Mr. Haynes?"  He said, "No, because no one knows my last name. They only know me as Stan."   I find the name thing here in Africa to be quite interesting.

In an hour we are going out with Elders Pack and Acton to visit an inactive couple.  We appreciate the young elders inviting us to their district meeting and to accompany them on visits to inactives and investigators.  It is good to see these elders in action and they give us a chance to make comments.  We enjoy our affiliation with the elders.  Thanks for e-mailing us.  You keep in touch with us more so than our own kids.  Diane did get a chance to speak with all of them on Mothers' Day and the day after and she felt good about that.  I talked with Neil and Corrine on Skype which was neat and on the telephone with David, Nikki, Cole and Sophie this past weekend. They were down at Lake Powell.

One thing I like about the internet is that I can get news of the NBA playoffs and other sports back home and can log into the Deseret News or Salt Lake Tribune for local home news.  Sister S. is excited about moving this Friday.  It's orange season now and sacks of oranges are for sale along roadsides by vendors. We thought of buying a sack but we couldn't eat 30-40 oranges so we didn't.  They have several varieties of oranges here in South Africa, also grapes. I've seen at least 8 different varieties of grapes in some stores.  Well, that's all for today.  Have a good day.

Elder S.