Working at the MTC

Having grown up in Mormonville, the Missionary Training Center has always been in the background of my life's setting. For years it stood there, half-hidden in the shadows of mystery. It was, in my mind, a sort of secret-agent training school for the LDS church. I mean, really: stupid, badly dressed, self-obsessed teenager Jimmy goes in; awe-inspiring, ridiculously attractive, skilled-in-all-things Elder Richardson comes out. How does this transformation occur?

You know that feeling you have when you look at side-by-side pictures of a caterpillar and a butterfly? That feeling that says, "HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?!"

Well, once I got this job working at the MTC, I had the chance to rip that chrysalis open and stare metamorphosis in the face!

And you know what I learned?

The metamorphosis doesn't happen in the MTC. It happens in the field. The MTC is more like the stage during which the caterpillar just eats and eats and eats - getting really fat so that it doesn't starve during the real metamorphosis.

...actually, the MTC is almost exactly like that!

Anyway, here are some snippets of my experience in the MTC. First things first: brand-new missionaries like to wax philosophical . . . with varying degrees of success.  I often find the product of their mental-labors scribbled on their classroom chalkboards:

. . . yeah, I don't know what it means either.

I have also found some even more disheartening phrases (some graffitied on bathroom stalls, others on discarded tissues) such as  "None of my wishes are ever granted," and "When all else fails, kick the dog." This was when I figured out that even though they've only been away from home a little while, brand-new missionaries are sometimes very sad to be here.

However, a lot of them really like being missionaries - or, at least, they really love goofing around with each other in a missionary-appropriate sort of way.

 One of the most common things missionaries like to do when they need to let go of some excess energy is sing. Really loudly. In fact, sometimes two districts in the same hallway will get up a little singing contest between them to see which class can sing "Praise to the Man" the loudest.

By the way, being a missionary doesn't mean you are automatically blessed with perfect pitch. Unfortunately.

There are a billion other things I could tell you about working at the MTC, but the weather is too good for me to stay at the computer much longer. So I'll just close with this last picture, as a symbolic way of saying that even though the missionaries at the MTC are a little crazy, they are working on something beautiful: spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. And their individual transformations are only just getting started.

 

P.S. Landscaping is fantastic! It's like they dropped Spring off at my front door!