Lucky us, as Missionaries we put our papers in and said we will go where the Lord needs us. Our papers returned calling us to the Florida Ft Lauderdale Mission, and we were to report Jan. 15th to the MTC. Our call had
NO assignment on it and it took 2 months for the President to call with an area of assignment. Pres. Noel B Reynolds assigned us to Marathon in the Florida Keys. Marathon in about center in the Keys and it is actually several Keys making us the city of Marathon, not just one Key with a name. After a week in the MTC, we were on the road almost another whole week before arriving in Marathon. We rented our apartment sight unseen through the missionaries we were replacing. It had been their home for two years and that was good enough for us. Word was that rent was high and this was a nice, fully furnished , but "small" place, and it would be hard to find a better apartment for the money. When we arrived and viewed all our new home we said ok, we are missionaries, this is going to be a fun experience. We came to love the Landlords, and we enjoyed the apartment, and we loved the beach we lived on.
YES, we lived right on the beach. It was beautiful and such a wonderful place for our grandchildren to play when they came. Everyday we could look out at the white sand that surrounded our apartment, we could walk to the Tiki hut and study or have our lunch and in the evening we could watch the sun go down over the ocean. It was wonderful!
Most people in the Keys live on a water way. In the 40's the core of engineers provided work by having channels dug out in the coral so that most homes had access to water right out their back doors. The home we lived in was a very large home built in the 30's or 40's and in the 90's the current landlord divided the home and made an apartment on either side. Our Landlord George brought in LOTS and LOTS of white sand to create his own Mexican beach. He built a large tiki hut and his own pier. We had all of that to enjoy out our front window.
These are our first Elders ..... the look on their face tells the real story when they learned they would be working with us! NO not really. We came to really love our Elders and these were two of the best. Weekly we had District meetings with our Elders in Marathon and with the Senior Couple and Elders from Key West. Those meetings were such a wonderful part of our week. Once each transfer (every 6 weeks) we met as a zone and had zone conferences. We would travel to the main land for all day meetings and travel time with "Our Elders". In the Keys we had alot of time to be with the Elders and I would like to think we all became gooooooood friends.
