MTC Reflections

The MTC experience was exhilarating, engrossing, uplifting and exhausting. We are glad we decided to live at the MTC for our two week training and didn’t take the option of living at home (5 minutes away). Being there was an "out of the world" experience. Everyone you meet is an active temple recommend holder and trying their hardest to do what is right. This feels a little bit like being at the temple. We attended everything we were supposed to attend and almost all the optional activities. The surprise of the second week was Elder Bednar as the devotional speaker on Tuesday night. We didn’t know he was coming until we were already seated at the devotional and 10 minutes before he walked through the door. There was an audible gasp and squeal of delight when his name was announced. He spoke on succession in the Presidency of the church, a rather timely topic, and mentioned the "apostolic interregnum" a couple of times, a term which we suspect was new to many of the audience. Sister Bonnie Oscarson spoke at the first Tuesday Devotional and gave an excellent talk, including principles, delightful anecdotes and lots of slides. 

For our first week of training we were divided into 'districts' of eight people, in ours we had three couples and two senior sisters. In our discussions I realized that between us we had more than 400 years of lived Church experience, and this was apparent from the discussions.

Other highlights were the teaching experiences. Unlike what they apparently did in the past they didn’t do role playing (Mr. and Ms. Brown), but we met with our fellow missionaries and volunteer members, each being themselves, and tried to discern real needs and then prepare and present a lesson to address those needs.

On our last day we had fifteen minutes to get to know the person we would be teaching, ten minutes to prepare a lesson and twenty minutes to teach it. We met with a volunteer member sister and a chance question (well, not chance really) about her deceased son's name led to a moving discussion of some very personal issues in her family background and a lesson that was sweet, spirit-filled and caused a tear or two.  

Richard (Louise writing now) went for a run on several mornings while it was still dark. He discovered that the perimeter of the MTC grounds is almost exactly a mile, so he would run once around the grounds and then if he still had energy to spare would run a few laps around the gym/sports courts/large meeting room, (sort of like the Marriott center, only smaller.) Anyway, one morning, he realised shortly after leaving our room that he had forgotten to wear his nametag. Fortunately he went back for it, as a few minutes later while running the perimeter, he was stopped by a security guard. As soon as the guard saw his nametag, all was well. Apparently someone had been seen trying to climb the MTC fence (breaking in, not running away), and all the security people were on heightened alert.

Being a senior missionary is kind of fun. You get treated as if you were a ministering angel. I don't think I opened more than one door for myself the whole two weeks. The young missionaries would sprint towards the door to open it for me. I could get used to that. The doors were mostly rather heavy and on one occasion I actually was alone at a door so pushed at it to open it. It didn't budge so I pushed a little harder, and was about to give it the mighty shove it needed when a couple of young missionaries arrived on the scene and took over.

(Back to Richard) A feature of the new MTC building is the Disciple spaces; gigantic murals with backlighting. Each of them represents an important moment in scriptures and is accompanied by an associated reference and a question to ponder as you study them. As a district we peacefully sat for about 30 minutes looking at one - reading scriptures, contemplating the messages and our feelings. We then shared thoughts and insights.  They are 30 foot, wall-high, backlit mural. Here is an image of the Sons of Mosiah. The photo does not do justice to a 30-foot, wall-high, backlit mural.

On a more mundane level our room was like a comfortable hotel room, plus treats. MTC management put out salted chocolate caramels, fresh apples, mixed nuts and other stuff in the Senior residence lobby. The food was surprisingly good for institutional food and lots of variety, once again, apparently more variety than they used to have. There were not only unlimited quantities but also a selection of heathy and fresh options as well as delights for the 19-year old palate (pizza, corn dogs, ice cream etc.) Not having to worry about menu planning or cleaning was a relief with our busy schedule, but we are both looking forward to having control over our own grocery buying again..