7/19/16: Transfer Week/Ghost Pepper Challenge

So right now as I am sitting writing this email. my stomach hurts a lot haha.... so there are these 2 super cool brothers in my ward. and they love spicy stuff. like a lot. They were doing the ghost chili pepper challenge. basically in 2007 it was made the hottest pepper in the world. Since then new peppers have come out, so its 3rd or 4th right now. Well I decided to join in about 2 hours ago, and WOW is it hot.. on top of that I had 2 ghost chili peppers.. so yea, but I got free icecream!!! but just in case you were curios on the hot scale, a jalapeno is rated as 1000, habenero is at 400,000, and the ghost chili pepper is 1 million. so yea. it was hot. It felt like I swallowed a knife. But hey, I did it.  

Anyway, this week was good. Transfers came and I am staying in lahti! Which is going to be my first city that I have stayed 6 months in! But if there was any city for that to happen I want it to be lahti because this place is awesome and I have a ton of friends and people we are teaching. The ward is super cool, and so it will be fun.  My companion is leaving to the North and I am getting a new companion named Elder Parsons. 

Our recent converts birthday was this week so we set up a suprise party for him and it went super well!!  We set up this pinjata, which was made out of steel wiring and it took SO long to break haha.  But all went well.  We have been continuing to do a lot of finding, since are investigator pool has been dieing down, we were able to have a lesson with this really cool lady who has 2 crazy toddlers who climbed all over us during the lesson.

So this is one of my favorite elementary stories. Thought yall would like it, teaches a super important lesson.

There was once an Emperor from China who had no children and needed to choose a successor.

Thousands of children from across the kingdom came to the palace and were surprised when the Emperor exclaimed that he was going to choose one of them.  He gave them all a seed.  They were to go home to their villages, plant the seed in a pot and tend it for a year.  When they return in a year, the Emperor would judge their efforts and choose his successor.

There was a boy named Ling who received his seed and returned to his village.

His mother helped him to choose a pot and put some soil into it.

Ling watered his pot every day.

Once a week, the children of the village would get together to compare their plants.  After a few weeks, there were signs of life in all but Ling’s pot. 

The weeks passed and Ling continued to water his pot every day. 

After a few months, the pots really came to life.  Some had trees starting to grow, some had flowers and some had leafy shrubs.  Poor old Ling still had nothing growing in his pot, leading the other children to make fun of him.

Ling continued to water his pot every day.

A year passed and it was time to return to the palace to show what had grown and decide on the new heir.

Ling was anxious as his pot still showed no signs of life.  “What if they punish me?  They won’t know that I’ve watered it every day, they’ll think that I’m lazy.”

His mother looked him in the eye and explained that whatever the consequences were, he had to return and show the Emperor his barren pot.

Ling and the other children entered the palace gates.  By now, some of the plants were looking magnificent and the children were wondering which one the Emperor would choose.

Ling was embarrassed as other children looked at his lifeless pot and scoffed. 

The Emperor came out and started to make his way through the crowd, looking at the many impressive trees, shrubs and flowers that were on display.  The boys all puffed their chests out and tried to look as regal as possible, hoping that they would be chosen as the heir to the empire.

Then the Emperor came to Ling.  He looked at the pot then he looked at Ling. 

“What happened here?”  He asked.

“I watered the pot every day, but nothing ever grew.”  Ling muttered nervously.

Then he grumbled something to himself and moved on.

After a few hours, the Emperor finally finished his assessment.

He stood in front of the children and congratulated them on their efforts.

“Clearly, some of you desperately want to be Emperor and would do anything to make that happen, but there is one boy that I would like to point out as he has come to me with nothing.  Ling, come here please.” 

“Oh no,” thought Ling.  He slowly sauntered to the front of the group, holding his barren pot.

The Emperor held up the pot for all to see and the other children laughed.  Then the Emperor continued, “A year ago, I gave you all a seed.  I told you to go away, plant the seed and return with your plant.  The seeds that I gave you all were boiled until they were no longer viable and wouldn’t grow, but I see before me thousands of plants and only one barren pot.  Integrity and courage are more important values for leadership than proud displays, so Ling here will be my heir.”

Thats a ghost chili pepper.

Thats what I looked like while I was dealing with the second one I ate.