Jerez de la Frontera Cadiz 12/20/10

I am now in my new assigned area "Jerez de la Frontera de Cadiz'. The transfer was hard, especially having to carry my two overpacked and heavy luggage but I made it. The train ride from Dos Hermanas Sevilla to Jerez de la Frontera Cadiz was only 40 minutes.


Jerez is absolutely gorgeous. It is a breath-taking place. It's a town full of gypsies. Everyone here is part gypsy. They all sing and dance. But, they're almost all pure blood spaniards. There are hardly any Nigerians or South Americans. They're more Analuz here. In church even, they do not shake hands, they just kiss each other on the cheecks. Everybody makes you feel sooo welcome. The ward, is so so so friendly and loving.
By the way, we reached our baptism goal. Yes we did it! We now officially have 200 baptisms and still counting!!! We certainly deserve a little chicken to celebrate our success here. Right?? Hourray for Malaga Spain Mission!!! We also had our Stake Pres and our Stake Mission Leader from Sevilla to join in the fun.

Christmas Zone gatherings. Two awesome looking zone, Sevilla & San Fernando.

The city of Jerez is gorgeous. The architecture is old, and there are hills and killer views to enjoy. This city is giagantic, it's almost as big as Sevilla. It would probably take about 2 hours or a little more to walk from one end to the other. And that's not all. Our area encompasses a ton of other really big cities all around, in about a 2.5 hour bus ride distance.

I love it here!


This is a beautiful city!

I saw the most beautiful city in my life this week. It's called Ubrique and i'ts in our area. Ubrique is a small little pueblo sitting inside a valley. Its 2.5 hours by bus, and 28 euros to get there. It's actually one of the most famous expoters for designer leather in the world. There are a ton of shops selling leather purses, jackets, shoes, belts, wallets and all sorts of designer stuff and, its so green. It's so good to see mountains again. I missed the mountains. We had the oppurtunity to climb the mountains to find a less-active member. It was awesome. So we will mostly be doing heavy work in Jerez.
Gorgeous!

The people of Jerez are so much more friendly. Maybe it's cuz they drink so much wine...(lol), I am kidding. There are wineries everywhere. Jerez has some of the most famous wine in all of Spain. We even found some in our piso. It was way old. Wine is actually cheaper than beer here. But, everybody is so nice when we contact them on the road. I love it. I love Jerez.
I love the mountains

We did some pretty good work in the few days I have been here. We had three people baptized last Friday. We met Paco who was a brand new convert. He was baptized 2-weeks ago, but you would think he was a strong member for years. On Friday, Paco baptized his wife and I had the opportunity to baptize his niece Virginia and my companion Elder Waite baptized his other niece Esperanza. Paco is so excited about the Gospel and he wants to do missionary work with us. He's refering us to his friends and neighbors, and missionary work is picking up so so well!! The ward is excited with all the recent success and everyone is pitching in and offering help. I just love it.
Elder Bennett, Paco & his wife, elder Waite, Paco's two nieces Virginia & Esperanza.

Christmas is going to be swell!! We get to stay out til midnight on christmas eve and we get all of christmas day as P-day. I have recieved your package and I will open it on Christmas day.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!