Missionary Training Center

This is the main entrance to the MTC.  It's Spring and all the
tulips and flowers are beautiful1

The Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah is one of the most amazing places in the world.  They have up to 2500 people at one time spending from 2 weeks to 3 months learning how to be missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 100+ countries of the world.  Those who stay 2 weeks will be serving in their native language.  Those learning "easier" languages -- the ones with a 'normal' alphabet -- usually stay 2 months.  Those learning more difficult languages stay 3 months.    And then there is a group of 70-80 senior missionaries like us who come each week and stay for a week or 2.  We don't do language training here -- more about that later.  There are 14 other MTCs around the world.

There is a very large world map in the main hall of the MTC Administration building.  It is a long-standing tradition for those departing to take a picture pointing to the area where they are going to serve.  For us this was difficult.  St. Petersburg is so far north that we could barely reach up there to point.














But, the MTC is not only a language school, it's a place that feeds the soul.  There is a spirit there that can't be felt anywhere else.  All these people are at the MTC because they want to dedicate 18 months to 2 years of their lives to service -- often in some strange place where they don't know the language or culture.  They do it to fulfill the Missionary Purpose.

Our District the first week --
Heatons from Cedar City, Utah going to Tallahassee Florida
Then Us
Leavitts from Taylorsville, Utah going to Romania

Our first week in the MTC was basic training on how to be a representative for Christ and the Church.  There were 30 couples and 11 single sisters -- all senior missionaries.  We had some large group meetings, and some small sessions with 6-8 people.  Our group was 3 couples

Most people stay at the MTC 24/7, but we chose to stay with Sue's Mom in Salt Lake City and do the 45 minute commute each day.  We still ate lunch in the MTC Cafeteria.  It has really good food!  On Wednesday mornings the new young missionaries all arrive, so BYU Creamery sets up an ice cream bar in 1/2 the salad bar area.  Two of the big pots that are usually full of some kind of soup are full of hot fudge and hot caramel instead.

Our District the second week -- all doing Office training
Ken & Sue, Sister Mathews going to Brisbane, Australia
The Heatons to Tallahassee, Florida
Sister Ambrose to Raleigh, North Carolina
Sister Rogers to Ecuador
The Paulsens to Rome Italy

The second week was 4 days of Mission Office Training.  That will be our specific assignment.  Some of this was pretty easy.  We already knew the lessons on Word and Excel.  But then Ken went off to learn the Finance system and Sue stayed to learn IMOS -- the office system to keep track of all the people.  And then GVM -- Global Visa Management, to keep track of travel and visa for all the people coming and going.  In Russia we all have to leave the country every three months to get our visas renewed.  Also, one group of volunteers leaves and another comes in every 6 weeks.  Life will never be dull for us!

We did not do language training at the MTC.  But, that doesn't mean we aren't trying to learn Russian.  When we first got our assignment in November we signed up for Skype lessons.   Ken had an hour each week with KC Keigo and another hour with Matt Niu.  Sue had an hour with Matt  and another hour with Rickey Callister.  We will start this tutoring again after we get settled into St. Petersburg and have a regular schedule in the Office.  When we were in Provo we took them out to dinner one night.  KC and Rickey are married, so brought along their wives.  

We also have a wonderful family in our congregation in Palo Alto who moved there from Moscow almost 2 years ago.  Their two oldest daughters, Milla and Avi, (ages 12 and 10) came over each week and helped us label objects in our house.  We had 3x5 cards everywhere!  They also tried to help us with our bad pronunciation.