Our Week in the MTC

So how was our week with 2000+ other missionaries all preparing for missions to places all over the world: Russia, Fiji, New Zealand, Ukraine, Kenya, Nairobi, Spain, Romania, Peru, Mexico, all over the USA, and of course there is us going to India? In one word: GREAT! This place is amazing! It’s obvious that they have been doing this for a long time and are used to housing, feeding, and teaching very large quantities of people. There is literally an army working together to make it all happen—lots of BYU students cleaning everywhere, working in the cafeteria, teaching districts, working the front desk, etc., plus quite a few full time employees as well as the MTC Presidency.  And of course all us missionaries help each other out whenever we can. It’s a well-oiled machine! But the thing that is probably most important is the Spirit that is so prevalent here. 

The thing that surprised us the most is how busy they kept us! Classes from 8 am-4:30 pm Monday through Friday with night activities Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings. However, the classes were very participative and useful so even all of us oldies stayed awake.  Some of our classes were as a large group of about 80 senior missionaries and other times we were in our district of 8. We even had a chance two different times to practice teaching at the TRC (which despite the rumor to the contrary does not stand for “Torturing Retired Couples” but instead is “Teaching Resource Center”). They even had a couple classes on how to use your tablet/smart phone apps. Yeah!

Our room for the week was about the size of a hotel room with a real comfortable queen-sized bed, dresser, corner-table with two chairs, closet and bathroom. One thing I loved was that the 2 chairs each had a foot stool that slid out from under it. On a couple different early mornings, I carried one of the foot stools into the shower so I had a place to sit while reading/working on my computer without disturbing anyone else who preferred to sleep until 6.

This morning we repacked our suitcases in preparation of our 2:30 am checkout on Monday morning. Then this afternoon we went to the Provo Temple, the first temple I ever attended over 40 years ago. And who was one of the female helpers but a good friend who had moved to Provo a number of years ago. What a treat!

Stay tuned! The next entry will be from India!