MTC Week #2

 

Our second week at the Missionary Training Center was just as amazing as our first week.  This was the week that we had specialized training for Member Leadership Support.  We spent our mornings in a group setting with all the senior missionaries serving as MLS and leaving the MTC this week. There were approximately 40-45 of us.  In this group setting we were taught each day by senior missionaries.  We had training on Family History work, Church Education systems, Self Reliance programs.  We also had a couple of days training by missionaries that had served as MLS missionaries.  It was all so informative and interesting. 

When we were training on Family History we were shown how to use the compare a face activity on Familysearch.  This activity compares your face to your relatives and to famous people.  I look the most like my grandma Smith with 69% similarities.  These are two famous people I have similarities to- I am not sure what to think about this- haha. 

Our church offers so many great self reliance classes, both in person and online.  It was very helpful to learn about those classes.  

Our afternoons were spent back with our districts in a small group training.  We had one amazing young return missionary teach us for the week. We learned about technology and had some teaching assignments that  she helped prepared us for. 

This particular week at the MTC there were 700 missionaries being trained!  (Imagine feeding all those missionaries!) So because the MTC was so full there were several of us second weekers who were sent to stay at a near by hotel.  It was so fun to come down for breakfast in the mornings and see other missionary couples in the hotel.  I felt like it helped us bond even more and we had the opportunity to talk and learn more about each other.  We are just so impressed with all the wonderful stalwart members who love serving the Lord.  

If I remember correctly there are 10 MTCs in the world.  I don’t know how many missionaries are in the other locations but we had 700 at ours.  So multiple that by 10 locations and you can truly see how the Lord is hastening the work.  As Pres. Nelson has taught us 

The Lord is hastening His work to gather Israel. That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty

I hope each one of you will consider how you can help with this work.  If you are a senior and are in a position to serve a mission I wholehearted say do it!!!!  Just attending the MTC will change your life. 

Our evenings weren’t as busy as the first week but we did have a devotional with a general authority again on Tuesday night.  This time we were taught by Elder Patrick Kearon, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy.  He is from England and had a delightful accent.  We loved hearing his conversion story. He words  of  encouragement to us missionaries were very reassuring. 

The MTC is full of amazing pictures and artwork that all depict images of our Savior, aspects of his work, and our part in it.  One of our classrooms had expanse picture of the second coming of Jesus Christ which had hung in the Washington DC temple.  It was such a privilege to be able to see it close up and spend time pondering the scene. 

We were especially cold during this time.  One morning the temperature was down to 3 degrees.  It was only the promise of warm sunshine in South California within the week that kept me going. 

Leaving the safe cocoon of the MTC was very hard and emotional.  We felt very loved and the spirit was very strong there. We learned so much and made friends with some wonderful people.  People that were similar to us in many ways- loving the Lord, wanting to serve. We  even had  the same taste in device cases and color of shirts.  We will always treasure our time spent with them in the MTC.  

On a fun side note in the MTC  we met the brother of our Elder Quorums President in Seneca, SC.  It is a small world. 

Sister Prater and Sister Quirk

Elder Quirk and Elder Prater

On Friday morning we finished up our last large group class.  With tears in our eyes, we walked through the door of the MTC for the last time.  We climbed in our car to head south for our next adventure in  Newport Beach, California.