Our Get to Know Us Write up for the Newspaper in Area Office

We are Marv (Marvin) and Vickie Paxton and we come to Frankfurt  from Cedar City, Utah, where we have lived for the past 25 years.  Previous to that we lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Aberdeen, South Dakota.   We have two sons and one daughter, 2 daughter-in-laws and one son-in-law, 8 grandsons ranging in age from 11 years to 8 weeks and 2 granddaughters age 7 and 4.   We feel really blessed to have the family we have.   We love getting together and going camping, 4 wheeling, hiking, eating, laughing, playing games, watching movies, visiting historical places and working in the yard, and anything that involves being together with our kids and grandkids.

Marv and I were originally lined up on a blind date.  We had a nice time and dated a few more times then I told him “we can just be friends”.  About 6 months later we ran into each other again at an institute dance and my desire to date him again was renewed and luckily for me he asked me out one more time.  Long story short, about a year later after seeing each other or talking to each other almost every day, he asked me to marry him and I readily agreed.   That was the best decision I have made in my life.   He is a very kind and gentle man.   He has blessed my life and I feel honored to be his wife.

 

Marv was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.  He has one brother and one sister.   His sister and his mother,  who is 88, live together in Salt Lake City.

 

He joined the Army (3 years) when he was 19 and spent a year in Vietnam. When he got out the army, he hired on with the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller and was in that profession for 35 years.  He retired in July 2007 because his job was privatized and we were offered the opportunity to continue on with Lockheed Martin but it would require us to move to Prescott, Arizona.   We felt it was not worth the move at that stage of our life as I was working for S&I and not old enough to take early retirement.  We feel we made a good decision.

He served as Stake Clerk in a Student Stake for 5 years and then was called as a Bishop of a Student Ward for three more years.   He loved the students of the ward and they loved him.  He has served as a Stake Auditor, and we team taught as Temple Preparation Teachers and Family Relations Teachers in our ward.   I think one of his favorite calling’s was to be a Family Home Evening Parent to a young man in the Youth Correctional Facility in Cedar City.

I was raised in a military home.  My father was in the Navy and we moved around the country almost every year of my life until I was 16. My claim to fame (or not) is that I graduated from Preston High School.   I have 3 brothers and one sister, who died as a baby.   I have been a secretary in my work experiences, which included working for an attorney,  in the schools and my favorite was Seminaries and Institutes.

I have served in many capacities in the church.   I have been blessed to be Primary President, Relief Society President both ward and stake (student), Young Women’s advisor, camp director, a teacher in all organizations.   I have loved my callings and they really helped me grow closer to my Savior. 

 I felt prompted a year ago January to retire after 17 years with S&I.  Nine months later we were approached about serving a mission here in Germany and after some bumps and bruises on the path to getting here, we are now serving here.  I am serving with S&I doing finances working on the second floor and my husband is working with CFYA doing finances working on the fourth floor.   I guess this keeps us happy as we really look forward to our lunches together.  We love being here and hopefully learning from all our new experiences we seem to have each day.  How blessed we are that the Lord has confidence in us that we can help to do something of value here.