During our week at the MTC (Missionary Training Centre) in Provo Utah, my husband made the joke that the place was a little like Star Fleet Academy. Unless you are a Star Trek fan, you might not get the joke. But when I think about it, the MTC really is training the young people to figuratively reach for the stars... they just don't wear those spandex uniforms.
On Monday, May 7th, our first day of training, both of us were feeling a little restless, perhaps even a little cranky. After all, we had been there for the "same" training in November 2015 and we felt impatient to just get on with it and get to Italy. By Tuesday, however, we became very happy we were there. There is a spirit there like no other. And there are such good people to meet. And we discovered that we really did need the "Preach My Gospel" training again.
Our hearts began softening on Monday evening when we had the chance to view the video of a devotional given by the apostle David E. Bednar on Christmas 2011. We had seen it before in 2015 and it was one of the most memorable speeches we had ever seen. In fact, this video has pretty much become MTC required viewing and is only available there. It's called "The Character of Christ" and teaches examples of how Christ always looked outwardly, and never thought of himself first. It is probably the finest discourse that Elder Bednar has ever given and is a speech I could see over and over again.
There were about 90 senior missionaries who did that training that week. Many were "at-home" missionaries who would be working with their local church leaders with various needs. Some were facility management missionaries, who would be working for six months over the summer maintaining the grounds and facilities at Church History Sites. Others were going to various locations in the U.S. to either work in the mission offices or doing "auxiliary support" (I asked what that was and she said she really didn't quite know yet). And then there were those doing what we are doing: MLS which stands for Member Leadership Support. There was a couple going to Hawaii (poor them!), a couple going to Sri Lanka, a Canadian couple from Red Deer going to the Ukraine, a couple going to Slovakia and so on and so forth. Most were married couples but there was a group of older Single Sisters there too.
We were divided into small groups of eight people and our group had four couples. Here's a picture of our group with our morning and afternoon teachers in the middle:
Two of the couples were doing Facility Management missions, one to the Priesthood Restoration Site in Pennsylvania:
- https://history.lds.org/article/historic-sites/pennsylvania/priesthood-restoration-site/what-to-expect-when-you-visit-prs?lang=eng
and the other to a historic site I'd never heard of before, Cove Fort.
- https://history.lds.org/subsection/historic-sites/utah/cove-fort?lang=eng
The remaining couple were doing an at-home mission somewhere in Brigham City, Utah. They were the most grandparenty couple you could ever meet, especially her. She was the kind of person you knew must always have a jar of cookies ready to give away to anybody she thought needed one.
The training was a bit different than what we'd had in 2015. There was more emphasis on using technology and I learned some new tricks for using the LDS Gospel Library app that I didn't know before. Also, there is another app I didn't know existed called LDS Media.
We were specifically taught about getting to know people and then listening to the spirit, or inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to figure out what message might most help the people we taught. Unlike 2015, there wasn't anyone pretending to be an investigator of the Church, we were teaching each other. We were paired with a couple from the group next door to teach a few times and they teach us. The first time we met them, Hermes and I both felt like things had fallen flat and that it wasn't going to go well, but it all changed on our second time meeting and getting to know them and after that we felt very connected with them. Here is a picture of us with them at the famous MTC map pointing to where we're going:
There are two new buildings at the MTC which were only just be built when we were last there. One of the buildings has murals using photos from the church produced Bible Videos. If you've never viewed those Bible Videos, you really ought to. They are wonderful!
- biblevideos.org and also available as an app
The other building had gigantic murals on each floor, some depicting Book of Mormon scenes (might have been from the upcoming Book of Mormon videos), others more Bible scenes (there is an incredible one showing the children of Israel crossing the parted Red Sea) and a few Church History murals. I took pictures of many of them but due to copyright, I can't put them up on this blog. I wish I could!
Outside of classes, we got to the Temple three times. The first visit was the Provo City Centre Temple which we had never seen before. This temple is unique because it used to be the public Provo Tabernacle building where many conferences were held but unfortunately the Tabernacle burnt down and left only the outward brick shell. The Church decided to convert it to a Temple preserving that outside shell which was quite the undertaking. This is a fairly famous photo showing how it had to be put on stilts and dug under in one of the early stages of construction:
You can also watch a time-lapse video of it's construction and finished product on YouTube here:
It has now been open since 2016 and on the inside is rather Victorian and quaint in it's decor. I really think it's a beautiful temple.
I guess there is one scripture that sums up how I felt about our time in the MTC and how it inspired me to do better in my life. It's from the Book of Mormon, a book that never fails to inspire me:
And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.
2 Nephi 25:26
That is truly how I felt at the end of our week: rejoicing in Christ and rejoicing that I have the opportunity to go serve the people of Italy. Life doesn't get any better than that.
