Isaiah's Missionary Letter " What is tripe?"

This has been a good week. We were able to have zone conference again and that was great. We were told that we are finally going to the temple this week and that was exciting to hear. So this Friday we are taking the entire day to drive 4 hours to Durban, do a session at the Durban Temple, then drive 4 hours back. It will be a long day but it will be awesome. I haven't been since the beginning of my mission when I got endowed in the Gilbert Temple. So it's been over a year since I've been. 

This last Saturday this member had us come over and she was going to teach us how to make South African food. So my companion and I along with Elder Thwani and Elder Grimmett from my district came and we made, pap, chakalaka, mince/vegetables, and this steamed bread. It was fun to make, and it was delicious. So that was dinner 1. Then the other Elders had a dinner appointment after that. So we went with them to dinner part 2. We get there and this sister loves to sing hymns. So we sang probably 10 hymns with her. Our singing isn't even good so I don't know why she insisted on singing more. Then after they gave us dinner. Well they gave us pap, lettuce, tomato, and tripe. For those that don't know, tripe is a delicacy here in South Africa. Tripe is cow intestines, and I ate that. The taste wasn't bad, the texture was horrendous. Some parts were like squishy, fatty noodles, when other pieces were rubbery, and almost fuzzy. That was the first thing that I ate on the plate hoping that I can quickly eat it and be done. But then I still had pap left and pap is never good by itself. So the sister said I should get more sauce from the tripe for the pap so I can eat it. So I give my plate back thinking she would only put the broth on it. No, I actually got seconds on the tripe. So I had two servings of tripe for second dinner. We were so full that night. My companion actually threw up in the middle the night. He doesn't know if it was from the tripe or just all the food we ate, but I was feeling very good the next day either so that didn't help. Other than that experience it was a good week. I wouldn't recommend tripe to anyone. 

Elder Leuck

Sorry for the blurry photo but that is tripe, then the other are what we made for dinner part 1. The last is of Elder Grimmett sending it with eating the fuzzy tripe. I included this one so you can see the tripe better.