My Week at the Missionary Training Center--Provo, UT

Monday morning, July 22, 2013

I rose around 5:45 a.m.  I didn't take my usual walk as I thought I would probably do quite a bit of walking during my first day at the MTC.  That turned out to be the case.  I had set out the clothes I would wear for the day but didn't think about having to wear a dress while I finished packing and cleaning the bedroom/bathroom, so I slipped into my walking clothes anyway because they were handy in the suitcase.

I had four pieces of luggage, two larger ones and two which were carry-on size.  I knew because I was driving and not flying that I was not constrained to fit all of my belongings into three bags.  However, I also had half a dozen totes with sundry items that I wanted to take, some of which I could have bought once I arrived in Maryland, but I did not want to have to go out shopping immediately upon arriving in the mission field.  These were things like large bottles of vitamins, calcium, niacin, and omega oil capsules as well as extra toiletry items and a variety of books, stationery, and other paperwork that I would need in Maryland.  I also planned to take my bathroom scales, DoTerra oils, and blender, and the bedding that I purchased here rather than in the mission field so I would have it for the first night when we arrived.  After getting all of my clothes in the suitcases, I found that there was still room for more, so I condensed some of the tote contents into suitcases, which would make more room in my car for Katrina's luggage.  

I digress for just a moment to an event of May 28th when I lost my umbrella at Fresh Market.  I was kind of frustrated that day when I thought about whatever dishonest thief or desperate soul would take MY umbrella.  Well, prior to packing for my trip, I went and had my car cleaned.  I seldom pay for the vacuums at the car wash but decided I would do it this time.  When I got out and started vacuuming the car, I moved the passenger seat back and lo and behold there was my missing umbrella!!  I was briefly overjoyed by such a simple discovery, and then I had to speedily repent of my unkind thoughts towards the imagined thief.

Back to packing, Ammon helped me put my bags in the car and we found a suitable way to arrange it around the luggage.  I packed items together in groups so that I would not need to take all four bags into my apartment at the MTC for the five days I would be here.  I am a little concerned about how the extreme temperatures will affect the items in the car, but I will just hope for the best.  (Everything arrived in Maryland in pretty good shape except for some soap and oils that I use to make foaming hand soap, which leaked and got all over the suitcase they were in.  Fortunately, I did not place any clothing in that bag so I was able to clean it all up without too much trouble.)

Does this look familiar?  (Main entrance to the MTC)

Saying goodbyes was a little different from when my children went on missions.  Family members are no longer invited to accompany the missionaries into the building or in their initial orientation meeting.  When a missionary is dropped off by family now, they give their goodbye hugs at the curb and drive off.  They have about 2 minutes to do so, as there are about 100 cars going through every 15 minutes.  This is for the younger elders and sisters.  There are not as many seniors coming on Mondays, but the family is still not invited.  There is not even a curbside hug for those who are driving their own cars, such as I am.  I gave Ammon a hug before he went to work and hugged Abby and her kids before they went to swim.  It was kind of strange doing a final walk through of their silent house by myself to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything and then closing the door behind me for the last time for two years.

I was to report to the MTC between 10:00 and 10:30.  I figured that I would aim for somewhere closer to the 10:30 time.  I misjudged somewhat and did not leave the house until about 10:15.  I wanted to swing by Teresa's and get hugs one more time and give her a couple items, so I decided that I would just have to be a few minutes late.  Throw in a few long red lights and a construction detour, and I ended up being about 10 minutes late.  Since I couldn't ask for a redo, I just felt relieved that I made it safely and found my way around the construction area.

The morning was spent standing in lines, waiting at desks, reading information packets, and sitting and listening to well-rehearsed presentations informing us of where to go, what to do, and what to expect.  We each had the opportunity to stand and introduce ourselves, telling where we were from and where we will be serving.  There are about 82 senior missionaries who came today.  Some will stay for two weeks but a few of us will only be here a week.  There are only 8 single sister missionaries this week.  There are a lot of couples and some single sisters who will be working in the Perpetual Education Fund programs in various countries.  Some will do humanitarian work, and others just indicated the name of a mission in the States but didn't say the focus of their service.  There is a couple from Hurricane, Utah who will be going to Mainland China to serve in Humanitarian Services.  There are couples going to Africa, Canada, Mexico, South America, Russia, Armenia, the Philippines, India, and even Iceland where there are about 200 members in two branches; this in a country with a population of 318,000.

After lunch, we were organized into ten districts of about 8 people, either four couples or three couples and two single sisters.  My companion is Sister Vaden from St. George, Utah.

My companion and I

My District

Lobby near our rooms

View from my bedroom window

Settling into my room

We then had free time from 3:30 until dinner which was between 4:00 and 7:00 and then were just on our own to unpack, review information that we had been given, but hopefully to just rest and get to bed early after a very long day for most of us.  Some who had to fly to get to the MTC had a very long day without much sleep the night before, like the couple who flew and arrived at the MTC at 1:00 a.m. this morning and didn't get settled in their room at the Marriott Hotel until about 4:00 a.m.  Some of the couples are at the Marriott, and others are in MTC housing.  

All of the single sisters are in MTC housing, 3rd floor above the Book Store and Mail Services in the Jacob Hamblin Building—Building 2M for those of you who know where that building is.  It is right next door to the main building where the cafeteria is.  Our training all takes place in a church across the street to the north of the MTC.  So far, I have only been lost a couple of times, trying to figure out what exit or entrance to take to get where I want to go.  My radar is not the best at trying to figure out which direction I am facing.  Fortunately, I do know which way is up, so I am not a total basket case.

I had the opportunity to receive and sign my ministerial certificate, which I will carry with me at all times in case I need to show it to anyone who should ask for proof that I am who I say I am—an authorized representative of Jesus Christ.  I consider it a great honor and privilege.

Now it is time to get some rest.  Although some reference was made to Preach My Gospel today, tomorrow we will begin going through the wealth of information that is available in that book and learn how to use it to be effective missionaries.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

I had a somewhat restful night's rest and rose a few minutes before 6:00 a.m.  I didn't set my alarm clock, because I usually wake before I need to anyway.  I woke several times during the night although it had nothing to do with the worry of oversleeping.  It was just a new place, a new bed, new sounds, and new adventures awaiting me. 

I went to the exercise room on our floor where there are two treadmills and two or three elliptical bikes.  I chose to use the treadmill and only spent 15 minutes of my planned exercise time figuring out how to make it work at the appropriate speed.  I finished a 20 minute walk anyway and then hurried to my room and finished preparing for my day. 

There are three buildings where I spend my day, so I don't get lost too often (as long as I go out of the right door.  2M, the Jacob Hamblin Building, is where I live (on the 3rd floor).  The bookstore and the post office are on the main floor, so the halls are usually pretty crowded any hour of the day when we step out of the elevator on the main floor.  If we go to the north out of the building and through the parking lot and a security gate we come to the chapel where our training takes place.  Or we can go south to building 1M, which is the most popular place on campus, not because of the administrative offices but because the cafeteria is there.  We were issued an ID card when we arrived the first morning which we pass through a card reader located on each entrance to allow access to all buildings.  The card is also used at the cafeteria to charge meals to our account.  Rather, it subtracts money from our account as we paid for all meals and the room for four days on the first morning we arrived.  So there are two ID cards that everyone wears quite visibly.  The first is our missionary name tag which is a great privilege to wear.  We found out quickly why every missionary we saw had their ID card hanging from a retractable clip at their waist.  It becomes very annoying to be digging through my belongings every time I need to use the access card.  Even though it is only for one week, I bought the belt clip to simplify my life a little while I am here.

The cafeteria was not as busy today as it has been the last couple days because many of the missionaries left for their assigned areas to make room for the new missionaries arriving on Wednesday.  But the sidewalks along the way to the cafeteria were very crowded with missionaries and all their luggage waiting to catch the shuttles that would take them to the airport.   Each time I go to the cafeteria I discover more foods that I didn't know they had.  Today it was a lot easier to see all of the stations and what they were serving because there wasn't a wall of missionaries standing around them.  There are about a dozen stations or more where trays and silverware are picked up.  They are in close proximity to the different food bars which vary with each meal but provide a large variety of choices from salad to wraps to hot sandwiches (like burgers and fries) or traditional meals with an entrée and sides such as rice and vegetables, etc.  As we sit down to eat we look around and see that others have items that we would have preferred if we had only known.  One thing that I have discovered is that none of the meals are for people who are trying to watch saturated fat intake.  In order to avoid fatty food, I would eat salads and fruit or cold cereal with skim milk for every meal.  So I am just kind of ignoring the low fat diet this week.  Hopefully it won't kill me.

The first meeting after breakfast and the first meeting after lunch are in the chapel and the remainder of the classes (district meetings) are in one of the class rooms.  Here we have young return missionaries who are our instructors or guides to help us learn the principles of Preach My Gospel and how to use the lesson material to lead missionary discussions.

Today we learned that we will have the opportunity with our companions to practice presenting Lesson 1, the Restoration of the Gospel, from chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel to an investigator.  Tomorrow they will have the cultural hall of the church partitioned off to represent homes or apartments.  They call it the MTC Condos or Referral Training Center.  I must admit that I am a bit nervous about facing this challenge.  I wish now that I had attended the missionary preparation classes that our Stake provides each Sunday morning and also that I had taken the time to sit down with some of my children to practice discussing gospel principles from these lessons.  I thought I understood the principles and wouldn't have a hard time, but it is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  My greatest comfort is to know that I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and if I am prayerful and trust in him, I will be able to do all things.

This evening after dinner, we had the opportunity to go to the Marriott Center and hear Elder John K. Carmack speak to all of the missionaries.  What a wonderful experience to sit together with over 4,000 young missionaries and feel a part of a great work.  About one-third of those in attendance were in the choir.  They did a beautiful job singing "Praise to the Man".  We were able to ride a shuttle bus from the MTC to the Marriott Center, but all of the young missionaries walked unless they had a physical disability.  It was a marvelous sight to see the "sea" of missionaries moving as one body down the sidewalks between the MTC and the Marriott Center.

Not the best picture, but you can kind of see the mass of missionaries stretching from the Marriott Center towards the MTC

When we returned to our rooms at the conclusion of the fireside, I took some time to try to organize my thoughts and review the very rough lesson plan that my companion and I had created for tomorrow's lesson.  Then I fell into bed at about 11:00 p.m., slightly behind the schedule followed by the young missionaries, which is also the "suggested" time for us to retire.  I set my alarm clock for the first time in months to make sure that I don't miraculously have such a good night's sleep that I don't wake up by 6:00 a.m.  I just prayed to sleep well to make the best use of my nighttime hours to be prepared for tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Well, I woke up at 5:00 a.m.  Surprisingly, I had a very restful sleep.  Since I was awake and they said the water would be off in the building until 6:30 a.m. I decided to go ahead and go work out early.  I was handily ready to go by 7:00 when my companion knocked to go to breakfast.

There was a little excitement in the air as each of the 42 senior missionary companionships anticipated teaching discussions this morning.  At the appointed hour, we entered the MTC condos and found apartment 11.  Our investigator was Naati Talakai.  She is from Tonga and has been living in the United States for three years.  She was a very talkative lady but as gracious as I would expect a Polynesian to be.  We were able to present most of the information we had planned to teach her, even though she was very talkative and took us in a couple of directions away from our planned presentation.  We all felt the Spirit at times during the lesson, especially when we related personal experiences of how the gospel and the Book of Mormon have blessed our lives.  We invited her to read 3rd Nephi Chapter 11 and pray about the truthfulness of its message.  After we explained to her the steps of prayer, she agreed to give the closing prayer.  She felt the Spirit again as she prayed and shed some tears while she prayed.  She concluded our visit by presenting each of us with handmade "braided" leis (made from a fluffy yarn).

After lunch we began discussing the importance of following up with the ones we teach to see how they did with their commitments and to encourage them to continue to study and learn.  We found out that we will do a similar thing at the "MTC Condos" tomorrow.  Hopefully we are a little better prepared this time and will have a little more confidence in our teaching abilities.

Meal time is a time to get to know other senior missionaries a little better as we sit and visit about something besides teaching discussions.  We are more likely to talk about where we are from, where we are going, and what we will be doing there.  Well, that kind of sounds like a missionary discussion that I heard a long time ago J.  For instance, I talked to Sister Whitaker who said she has family in Cache Valley.  Her father, George Dalley, lived in Wellsville, but he is deceased now.  He was 94 when he died.  (I didn't see a George Dalley in the Wellsville Cemetery who was that old, so I heard the name wrong or he isn't buried there.)  I told her my daughter married into the Leishman family of Wellsville, and we decided that Shane's grandpa and her father probably knew each other.  That is two people out of the several thousand here that I have met who know someone in the tiny town of Wellsville, Utah.  And of course, as is usual many places that I go, people always say "Hatch, are you related to so and so who is a Hatch?"  Most of the time I am not.

Tonight at dinner we had a very leisurely meal because the thousands of missionaries who came to the MTC this morning ate their dinner earlier than the rest of us so the cafeteria was not very crowded by 5:30 when we went.  (Our schedule says dinner time is between 4:00 and 7:00.  They probably need every bit of that time to feed that many missionaries.)  I was wondering if they still had Ice Cream Day, and for sure they do.  Today for lunch and dinner they had BYU Creamery ice cream in the area where wraps are usually served.  Since ice cream is not my favorite, I chose to have frog eye salad and pistachio salad for dessert instead.  Now those are a couple of my favorites!

We joined a small group of senior missionaries who had already been seated for a short while.  One of the sisters in the group was not sitting with her husband; or rather her husband was not sitting with her.  We inquired if he would be coming, and we were told that he would not.  He was in the hospital because he had a heart attack shortly after we completed the investigator discussions this morning.  They did surgery, placed two stents, and he was doing well.  I could see my companion was nervous enough this morning that having a heart attack over it is a possibility.  This good sister whose husband had a heart attack said she hoped the word didn't get back to the sister they taught earlier because she didn't want her to think she gave them such a hard time that he had a heart attack.  I don't really think that the experience caused Brother Cattron's heart attack, but it is quite possible that it saved his life.  They are from Kalispell, Montana.  He did some last minute repair jobs in the last week or two, like repairing a deck and a couple other physically demanding jobs, any of which could have caused him to have a heart attack while overexerting himself.  It is a good thing he was used to hard work or those may have killed him.  But, I think it is wonderful that he was here at the MTC at the time that his heart decided to start acting up.  When he and his wife decided it was his heart that was causing him the pain and discomfort, they were able to get help here quickly and had him in surgery in a relatively short time.  If it had happened while they were traveling or after they were on their mission, the outcome may not have been as favorable.  Hopefully they will be able to proceed with their mission.  I thought it was interesting that the sister was back at the MTC already so she could have as much of the MTC experience as possible that she could share later with her husband.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Today started out much the same as before.  We ate breakfast and met briefly in the chapel with all of the other senior missionaries.  It was announced that Elder Cattron is doing much better and will be back at the MTC tomorrow.  The doctors want him to wait a couple weeks before they leave, but they will still be able to fulfill their mission assignment.  Then we went to our District meetings and began right away by going to the MTC Condos to meet with an investigator.  This time it was someone who had already visited with the missionaries before.  We asked her how she had done with her commitment to read from the Book of Mormon and answered her concerns.  We then taught the Plan of Salvation.  It was a good discussion, but by getting a little side tracked with nonessential conversation a time or two we had a harder time staying focused and feeling the Spirit guiding us.  It is a good thing we are still in the practice mode.

We then went back to our classroom to have more classes as a District.  After our first break, one of the couples was late getting back to the classroom.  When they came in, they began gathering up all of their materials and bags.  They informed us that Sis. Mendenhall's mother had just passed away.  They had to go back to Pocatello, Idaho and were not sure what was going to happen from here.  Her mother is 94 years old.  Knowing that she is near the end of her life, they prayed that if she could not live until they come home in 18 months that she may be allowed to pass away before they left so that they could be here to support and comfort family and help plan and participate in the funeral.  Their prayer was answered but on rather short notice, as they were supposed to fly to Belize on Monday.  When we went back to our classroom after lunch, the Mendenhalls were there.  They were able to arrange to travel to Pocatello on a shuttle bus and will be able to be there for the funeral on Tuesday.  Originally they were supposed to fly out on Tuesday, but now it will be Thursday, only two days later.  What a blessing the Lord has extended to them to be able to be here for her mother's funeral and have arrangements be made so quickly.

After dinner tonight, I took some time to organize my luggage so that I will be able to pack quickly tomorrow morning and be ready to leave after classes end at 3:15.  I am starting to get a little nervous about the long drive, but I know the Lord will watch over us.

I hope to retire to my bed early tonight.  I am going to study my assignment for tomorrow and then turn in.

Friday, July 26, 2013

By now, Sis. Vaden and I have a good routine.  She is just down the hall from me in room 315.  I get up about 5:30 a.m. and go walk on the treadmill.  I return to my room and shower and get ready for the day.  She taps on my door about 7:00 a.m. and we go to breakfast.  We have an enjoyable, relaxing breakfast visiting about the learning activities for the day and watching the young missionaries come and go.  Then we return to our room for a short while and walk over to the chapel about 7:50.

Today we didn't meet in the large group but went directly to our classrooms.  We spoke briefly about today's assignment, which was more role playing, but this time we were missionaries visiting with less active members.  It is interesting that although we were assuming the role of other people (we chose friends or family that we know) and trying to figure out how we can help those who once had a testimony but have turned away from it, it was easy to feel like we were really talking to those people and empathizing with their needs. It was a very worthwhile exercise.  It seemed to be closer to the type of teaching that I will be doing on my mission rather than contacting investigators.

We then met together in the large group and discussed how we can work together with Ward and Stake leaders to help meet the needs of the members and promote missionary work in the areas where we serve.  As stories were shared about how some of the wards and branches are hesitant to have the missionaries come in and tell them how to do their job or worry about the missionaries trying to "change" things it brought a new perspective to the work.  It is almost frightening to think about the prospect that some people may say, "we don't need you or even want you to be here."  I hope I can be like Ammon who simply told King Lamoni he didn't want anything but to live with them and serve them maybe even the rest of his life.

We had lunch and a final meeting where we had the opportunity to share how we felt about our experiences of the week.  Then we were dismissed for the day and a few of us prepared to leave.  Sis. Vaden and I loaded our cars, hugged each other, turned in our room keys and said our goodbyes.  It was exciting to begin phase II, the drive.

Throughout the week, and at the close of the week's activities, I pondered and compared this experience to my Wood Badge experiences.  There were many similarities.  The leadership structure was much the same with a couple who are called to be Senior Missionary Coordinators.  They delegate responsibilities to young return missionaries to help conduct the group meetings and district meetings, serving much the same role as the Senior Patrol Leader and Troop Guides at Wood Badge.  They teach lesson segments using video presentations, discussions, and role playing to teach us principles that will help us be successful missionaries.  As I left this amazing group of people that I have associated with for a week at the MTC, I was reminded of the day I left Wood Badge after my first experience as a participant.  I remember driving away from Camp Maple Dell where we had been with other Scouters and no other people around us and then going back out into the world hopefully being armed with the skills that would make us better Scouters and leaders.  At that time, I stopped at a store on the way home and walked in still dressed in my scout uniform.  I felt as though I stood out and could be easily recognized as a leader of scouts, and it felt good.  Today as I got in my car after a week of being with just missionaries and drove back "into the world" with my missionary name tag on my shoulder, I felt much the same as I did the day I ended my Wood Badge adventure.  My initial training was completed and it was time to share what I have learned with those I will now serve.  I hope I can be a proper representative of my Savior as I go forth now.