Humanitarian Trip to Patagonia

 Benjamin's trip to Chile was amazing.  He went with a group called Humanitarian XP (HXP)  They are owned by members of our church but the group isn't sponsored by the church.  They mostly do a huge service project, in Benjamin's case, they built classrooms on a school there, but they also go to church every Sunday, teach with the missionaries, visit the temple, and have daily prayer and scripture study time together.  They also have time to meet with locals to play soccer, go surfing, learn to cook native foods, and sight see around the area. 

I followed along with the leaders' pictures on instagram like a stalker. The first two days of him gone so far away felt like two years.  The trip enforces a digital detox so none of the kids are allowed their phones while on the trip.  It made me feel very distant from him and it gave me a small sense of what it'll feel like when he's on his mission.  It was so hard and I'm just glad it all looked so fun.  It made it easier knowing he was happy and doing a great work. It was also a great exposure to Spanish before having to learn it for his mission in a few weeks.  

The only downside was that his home flight occurred on July 19th - the day the whole world suffered a cyber issue which downed flights for days.  He was stuck in Miami (a pretty great place to be stuck) and finally made it home about 24 hours later than expected.  Luckily he had some great people from the group with whom to spend the time.