New Companion-Elder Galeano

So good to hear that everyone is doing so well. Congrats on getting school shopping done early this year. 

This week we had ´Cambios´ (transfers). This last Sunday I received my newest companion. *Drum Roll*... His name is.... Élder Galeano! 

Ben with his new companion Elder Galeano

He is from Paraguay. He is super fun, humble, and a very hard worker. He has been on his mission for 6 months (he arrived the cambio after me). He is from a little north of the capital Asuncion. 

These are pictures from the presentation they do when there are new missionaries in the office. It took looking at them a few times before we got this one, but if you notice, Elder Galeano is shredding "very important" documents

Ben is agonizing over the shredded documents that should not have been destroyed

Culture note: In Paraguay the accent is quite different. The ´Rrrrrroled Rrrrrrr´ sound is not pronounced as a sharp rolled ´R´. It is very round like when an English speaker is first learning Spanish. This has a lot to do with the second official language of Paraguay, Guarani. It is rather amazing to me. The language is one of the only native languages from South America that has been thoroughly integrated and maintained in the society unlike the majority of other South American Native Languages. So needless to say, his accent is awesome! 

Here is Ben with Elder Munoz, his old companion on the left and his new companion Elder Galeano in the center.

This week was super busy with changes. We had 20 Oros (new missionaries) and 15 Valientes (missionaries going home). Aside from the conference that was held with the whole mission, we also spend the day before taking care of the documentation of the Oros, feeding them, training them, training their Trainers. Then, we spend the day after that, getting everything ready for the Valiente's flights home. 

Normally the secretaries would take care of almost everything, but with so many, it required a lot of time and some lost sleep. It was really fun. It's always great to be in the presence of the new and old missionaries. The new missionaries are so ready to learn, full of excitement, and so delicate (like a new born). It makes me think a lot about when I first started the mission and how much I've learned since then. Then, in contrast, being with the Valientes is always a wonderful experience. They just have this polished off and refined spirit about them. 

This is the Montevideo Temple on the morning of transfers. What a beautiful picture!

The Élders from my ward (Malvin) and the Sisters from Carrasco (the chapel next to the temple in the same ward as the mission president) were featured in a newspaper article. I have a link to it if you want to look at it (it´s in Spanish btw). http://www.elpais.com.uy/que-pasa/rito-pasaje.html 

There's a picture of Me, Elder Muñoz, Élder Quezada, Élder Gallagher, Élder Gardner, and Élder Eraso.

Anyways, I love you all. I hope that everything is going well back home.

Love Ben