MTC Life

This place is mind-boggling.  Before we came here, Barbara and I were wondering why nobody ever describes it in their letters.  Simply can’t.  They coddle you and stretch you at the same time.  But I’ll try.  We entered at the main entrance, and were ushered to our intake room, like a high-class, private college.  From there to our orientation room.  We were assigned our room, given keys and orientation packets, and sent to move into our rooms, then lunch in the cafeteria.  It’s about the size of a football field, and just crammed with missionaries of every stripe.  Everybody treats senior couples like precious jewels, or movie stars.

The MTC is beautiful!  The grounds are tree-covered, the buildings are shaded and in good repair, the walks are functional.  We have a view out our window of trees and grass.  There’s lots of grass and inviting places to sit and study.

The rooms are spacious, by dormitory standards.  We each have a closet, three dresser drawers, a desk, and two lockable desk drawers.  Construction and decor are typical cement-block dorm style, but what else can you expect?  If everyone has it this good, it’s amazing!  The food is wholesome, nutritious, and unlimited.  The bed and chairs are comfortable, and each room has its own thermostat.  The airconditioning works well.  Can’t hear anything outside the room with the door closed.  Heaven!

It’s cushy being a senior missionary here!  The young missionaries treat us with respect bordering on reverent awe.  We are never allowed to stand in lines.  They jump to open doors or carry things for us.  They take it as a mark of special favor if we speak to them.  Our status is official.  While the young missionaries are scheduled in fifteen-minute blocks throughout the day, we start our classes at 8:00 am, and finish at 4:30.  They are rigidly regimented, we are on our own.  We get an hour and a half for lunch, during which we can do whatever we want, even nap.  We can leave the MTC whenever we wish.   They get mail call once a day; we can visit the MTC post office whenever we wish.  We can visit with our families (off campus).  Our evenings are free to study or do whatever we like.  They cannot have cars; we have our own parking lot.  The best seats at devotionals are reserved for us.  We have special shelves in the cafeteria for our books; the young missionaries may not even bring their books into the building!  They live in baracks-style rooms, four or more to a room, with common toilet and shower facilities.  We get individual couple rooms, with our own bathroom, tub, and a king-sized bed!  We have separate classes, and even our teachers are in awe of us!

I must admit that in some cases, this special treatment and reverence seem to be deserved.  Our classmates include mission presidents, stake patriarchs, and folks old enough to be my parents.  Of our class of 26 couples (and three single sisters), three sold their homes to raise money to pay for their missions.  Besides us, I mean.  Two of our classmate couples are going to England and Japan, which I know is costing them in excess of $3000 a month!  But the top of the food chain here is reserved for the senior sister missionaries.  Even the other seniors are in awe of them.  I won’t go into details, but they are amazing.