We arrived in Marathon Florida Jan 31, 2007. We met our missionaries Elder Melser and Elder Canfield the very first day. Elder Canfield arrived in Marathon the same day (transfer day). We came to dearly love and appreciate our missionaries. Marathon was a place that a missionary could come and be as disobedient as they choose to be. We had some of those, but for the most part we had missionaries who really tried to serve the Lord and to do it in spite of the difficult area they had been assigned. It was in Marathon that I came to know the struggles of missionary companionships, it was also in Marathon that I came to best know myself. As missionaries we had alot of time .... 4 missionaries, 45 members, equaled at least for us alot of down time. I thought a mission was all about 10-12 hour days, and highly structured especially for seniors. Marathon gave me a wonderful place to come to know myself. At one point I was so in need of some structure in my mission assignment that I sought some direction from the Mission President. He said if I was unhappy without enough to do, I needed to get a hobby. I thought that over and decided I would volunteer to do for the mission something I knew alittle about. I became the mission cook ..... and I loved it. Roger hauled so many boxes in and out of church buildings. WE LOVED IT!

Elder Melser and Elder Canfield




























Elder Canfield and Elder Edwards


























Elder Edwards and Elder Reiske




















Elder Reiske and Elder Martin






















Elder Martin (Tennesse) Elder Bastian
























Elder Bastian and Elder Velarde























Elder Velarde and Elder Brenchley

The Building and Our Branch Members

I loved the little building we worshiped in. It was a very small building built as a phase one building. The chapel doubled as the cultural hall and as class rooms when needed. It had a wonderful Family History library where we spent alot of time doing FH and church indexing. Every Monday morning Elder Smith and I cleaned the building to prepare it for the week. This is a building that only saw the missionaries during the week, it is way to far for members to come back for activities or to hold meetings during the week except on special occasions. There was a reverence in the building that I came to love. and in hard times I wanted to be in the building and feel its spirit. On Sundays we met and had Sacrament meeting in the main room, then the Sunday School and Primany people left ( 4-5) and the rest of us had Sunday School. For the last block we pulled the curtain that divided the main room and had RS and Priesthood (if there were enough to divide) We had Sundays when it was the missionaries (4 of us) the Branch President and his wife (the Golls) and if we were lucky maybe another member or 2 but we often would stay together. We had many Sundays when we had no youth so it was just the 8-10 adults and we stayed in our same seats for the entire 3 hrs.









































We held a Family History Open house when we first arrived hoping the community would come ... a few came and from that one lady decided to come often and so some research.


































The Branch members were people who for the most part had been born and raised in the Keys. Most were converts and their testimonies were unshakable. They knew that because they were a small branch many of the programs of the church would be different for them. They knew that if they wanted to stay strong and to keep their families close they had to work twice as hard. When they came to church each Sunday they came together as a branch but also as best friends. Often after meetings were over the chairs would go down and the tables up and we would have a linger longer (and we all lingered longer) It was hard for them to separate knowing that it would be a week before the met again. Great people!!!!

Marathone was a small Branch of about 45 members with only a third of them active. It went from Summerland Key on the south end to Key Largo on the north, a distance of 80-90 miles, and had members spread over the whole distance. The active branch consisted of 5 families, the Golls (Andy & Julie with Andy as the Branch President) the Kriegers (Nathan, Tracey, Shane, Matthew, and baby Nathan, with Nathan as the second councilor and a member of only one year when we arrived) the Riches (Clyde & Charlotte, with Brother Rich as the 1st councilor in the Branch Presidency), the Holmans (Jimmy, Debbie and son Adam 15 yrs), the Wildes (John, Kelly and young John 16yrs old), we also had two single sisters, an older widowed Sister Silvia Thompson) and a young lady named Jenny, and her baby who came occasionally.

Sunsets in the Keys

The "Keys" have some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. Everyday we got to be apart of such beauty. After I had lived there for awhile I came to know why the residents choose to live there in spite of hurricanes, tropical storms, heat and humidity.