February 20th, 2025, 9:55am MST
March 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of what became known as the Salt Lake Mission Home, the predecessor of what became a missionary training center around the world for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Missionary training dates back to the early days of the church at the Prophet School organized in the 1830s, where elders can “teach one another” the gospel, and “prepare with all things” (doctrine and Contract 88:77-80).
Salt Lake Mission Home
Salt Lake Mission Home began training about 100 missionaries a week in 1925. Missionaries learning a new language have learned the new language in their mission field.
The guidance and training of new missionaries received continues to evolve over time, but an article in the 1973 Church News article titled “Missionary House: A Study Place” was used to train missionaries in Salt Lake. gave her a complete itinerary on what life was like. Mission home.
The new missionary checked into his home on a Saturday morning. Many general authorities discussed titles such as “Your Possibility of Success,” “The Organization of Time,” “Spirituality, Key to Success.”
Sunday included an hour-long sacrament meeting during the day. On Monday, the missionaries will go to the temple for two sessions, finishing at 4:15pm, then return to mission home for more class work. Tuesday was featured in most studies of the day, and on Wednesday evening, missionaries received performance ratings to review what they learned.
Much of the current missionary research focused on learning missionary discussions and “flipcharts.”
On Thursday, the missionaries will depart directly for either Mission Field or for the language training missions at Brigham Young University, Rix College (later BYU – IDAHO) or Hawaii Church (later BYU – HAWAII).
The Biographical Database of Church History contains searchable records of missionaries who passed through the Salt Lake Mission Home from June 1924 to 1957. Part of the mission of the biographic database is to connect descendants to missionary ancestors.
Language learning
By the late 1950s, missionaries called to Mexico had difficulty obtaining permission to enter the country, and their arrival could be delayed by months. This prompted the consideration of BYU’s language training facility in Provo, Utah.
In December 1961, the first class of 14 missionaries, 16 to Argentina and 16 to Mexico, began their language learning programme in the BYU alumni building on the BYU campus. June 1963. Training in Portuguese and German has also been added.
The Language Learning Centres of Rix College and Hawaii Church University were established in 1968 for Dutch and Scandinavian, Polynesian and Oriental languages, respectively.
In 1971, the church created a plan for another Provo Language Training Mission Complex, which began housing missionaries in August 1976.
During the same period, the former elementary school, just north of the church office building in Salt Lake City, served as a Salt Lake Mission Home from 1971 to 1978. The facility is no longer large enough, so the Salt Lake Mission Home closed in 1978. We will deal with missionaries for long periods of time.
According to a church news article in August 1975, between 100 and 150 missionaries pass the language training mission each week, with sister missionaries accounting for 10% to 15%.
The preparation of the new missionary followed three main goals: “One is to teach them to become disciples of Christ. The second is to teach them the culture of the country they work and to learn to love the people they serve. And three The eyes teach them to preach the gospel in another language.”
The missionaries spent their first three weeks on a language training mission where they studied a new language full-time. The remaining weeks were focused on memory of the discussion.
An article from 1975 states that the elders and sisters lined up in cafeteria food. No one is idle in the queue. ”
Elder Mark Hale of Provo, Utah, who was preparing for a mission in Mexico, told the church news: I have never worked so hard and learned so much in a little time. ”
International Training Center
The first international missionary training facility was established in 1977 in Sao Paulo, New Zealand and Hamilton, New Zealand.
The following year, the missionaries were called to an English-speaking mission, added to Provo’s language training mission, and the name was changed to the Missionary Training Center.
More than 40 years later, after the church grew internationally, more languages were added at Provo Missionary Training Centre, and more missionary training centres were opened around the world.
There are currently 11 MTCs around the world:
Brazil Missionary Training Centre, Sao Paulo, Congo Missionary Training Centre, Paulo Brazil, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congon, Preston, England: Ghana Missionary Training Centre, Ghana Missionary Training Centre, Ganamesico Missionary Training Centre, Mexico Mexican Neu City, Zealand Missionary Training Center, Auckland, New Zealand Pe Missionary Training Center, Perphilippine Missionary Training Center, Manila, Philippine Provo Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utasus Africa Missionary Training Center, Johannesburg, South Africa Round Missionary Training Center, Bangkok ,sea bream,
Missionary Training in the Digital Age
The Covid-19 pandemic forced the closing of missionary training centres around the world in March 2020, and churches moved new missionary training to online instruction. Even if MTC resumes on-site training in June 2020, many missionaries will start training online at home for a third of their training and travel to MTC.
Elder Jarom Michael Moody, who was called to serve on the Massachusetts Boston Mission, told Church News in September 2021 that he could share his experiences at home MTC with his family.
“There are a lot of invitations to involve our families in training. There are plenty of opportunities to make them part of the experience, as we introduce them to what we are learning to introduce ourselves in Spanish. There was. One of the biggest benefits of home-based MTC is to meet my family. It separates being a missionary from leaving your family. I can train without homesickness. And it allows me to become a more effective missionary.”
