What The MTC is Like

All I knew going into the MTC is that we would be there for 5 days, and that we had to be in room B133 at 10:06 precisely. That was it. I read through all the material but NONE of it was specific to what was going to happen there.

We arrived on Sunday night so that we would be all moved in by Monday and ready for our only deadline. Unfortunately, we didn't realize they had a Sunday night fireside at 7pm, and we arrived at 7:10. (Tip: If you do come in early, arrive in time for the fireside. Then you can check out the murals in T3 afterwards. See next post.)

We went to the front desk, and the sweetest young sister walked us from the front desk to our room in S1 where all the senior missionaries stay. Our accomodations looked like a typical hotel room. There is even a workout room. The floor is also a complete loop so after we got unpacked, I walked it ten times since we had been in the car most of the day. The next morning qw headed downstairs at 9:45 for our 10:06 appointment. Not early, I know, but for the woman who is late for everything, I thought I was doing pretty well.

In the lobby of S1 a happy older gentleman welcomed us and said that we would wait for a group to form before heading over. 

Concerned, I said, "Wait, aren't we supposed to be there at 10:06?" 

“Doesn’t matter.” He answered. 

But it mattered to me. I didn’t want to be dubbed the late-to-everything missionary. At last he led us over to the large room. We entered four minutes late but no one was even expecting us specifically.  Six to eight different stations covered the space, each with happy volunteers there to answer your every question. Their tables covered travel, meals, itinerary, etc. Phew!

Happily, the volunteer greeting us at the door was a childhood friend and distant relative of my husband, Larry Freidan. He made us feel at ease.

We found out that most days follow a schedule of breakfast at 7am. Morning class with your district from 8am to noon. Lunch from noon to 1pm. Afternoon class with your district from 1 to 4:30pm. Dinner from 5pm – 6pm. Monday evening was free. Tuesday is a general authority fireside. Wednesday is the Attributes of Christ fireside. Thursday evening you go to the temple and Friday you are released. As a result, you are busy EVERY SECOND!

Soon after orientation, all the new senior missionaries sit in a room together and are called into districts. Unlike the younger missionaries who are grouped by responsibilities or where they are called to go, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason why groups were put together. It must be inspiration with a little bit of luck. All the districts but ours consisted of four couples. Ours had nine couples in it. They were going to New York City, Jamaica, Columbia, Peru, Colorado, New Zealand, Oregon, California, and we are going to London.

Classes were wonderful and focused on Preach My Gospel (PMG for short). We walked 3 to 4 miles a day on average since our class was on the fourth floor. On Wednesday we share the fireside with 230 new missionaries. Their excitement was contagious, and all in all the MTC experiences was wonderful. When I taught there years ago, we would say that the Spirit resides in the walls. It still felt true. This was a sacred place.

The biggest changes, other than the campus being over twice as large, were that investigators are now called friends. Memorized discussions are happily dead. Now missionaries teach with real discussions and the order doesn’t matter. Yeah! Although the fifty or so senior couples were impressive, watching the sea of young missionaries, smart, committed and about fifty percent female filled me with hope that the rising generation is doing great! Oh, and the biggest change of all? About a fourth of the sister missionaries were wearing PANTS. {I know it doesn’t matter, but the old stodgy me was a little shocked.}