PROVO, UTAH
In any given week, there are between 1,800 and 2,500 missionaries at the Missionary Training Center, learning how to be better ambassadors of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More than three-fourths of them are also learning a language other than their native tongue.
They don't do it without a lot of help.
In addition to the staff and teachers at the MTC, it takes a minimum of 500 volunteers every week to support the training that missionaries receive daily.
By playing the role of interested investigators armed with honest questions and a sincere desire to know what the Church is all about, volunteers help the missionaries practice the lessons they'll be teaching in the field; typically, by their fourth week, the missionaries are doing the whole thing in their new language.
The Provo MTC is one of 17 worldwide. Most don't teach languages, with a few exceptions. Missionaries called to Brazil go directly to the MTC in Sao Paulo for their two-month training, which includes learning Portuguese. Those called to Peru, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, or Spain spend three weeks in the Provo MTC, then continue learning Spanish for six weeks at the MTC in those countries.
In those places, they practice teaching with each other or by accompanying full-time missionaries on visits.
In Provo, as well as in the MTC in England and Brazil, the "investigators" come to the missionaries in the form of volunteers of all ages, including families.
Mark Ware, coordinator of the teaching experience at the Provo MTC, explains, "This experience (teaching volunteers) is the culminating event of the week that gives focus to the missionaries' personal and companion study, classroom instruction and other activities. Everything they're doing in the classroom peaks in this experience."
Not only do they have the opportunity to use what they've learned, but the teaching experience also gives missionaries practical experience in speaking their new language and applying the principles from Preach My Gospel that are taught in the classroom.
Brother Ware said the scenarios are written by the MTC development team "to make it as realistic as possible and simulate what the missionaries will encounter in the field."
The volunteers also get some help: a page of material designed as their religious background, along with a situation which allows missionaries to practice new vocabulary as well as zero in on the needs of the investigator as they teach.
Religious backgrounds range from non-Christian and atheist to various Christian denominations. Settings and tasks include making a first contact in a park, ordering food items at a restaurant, buying things at a clothing store, moving furniture in an investigator's house, or having a follow-up conversation on a crowded bus.
Missionaries also practice teaching in living room settings about the Plan of Salvation, Restoration of the gospel, Word of Wisdom, and other doctrines of the Church.
Preach My Gospel directs missionaries to study and know the material, then present it in a way that's personalized to their investigators' needs, rather than following memorized discussions and questions. Emphasis is on learning and teaching with the Spirit.
Long-time volunteer "investigators" have noticed a big change in how much more personalized the lessons are since missionaries began using Preach My Gospel, said Brother Ware.
The opening pages of Preach My Gospel carry a statement from the First Presidency. Part of it says the guide will help the reader "be a better-prepared, more spiritually mature missionary and a more persuasive teacher."
Said Brother Ware, "It's what we're seeing happen."
He said his shift leaders find those 500 volunteers they need every week "wherever we can," including the BYU campus and the surrounding communities, where volunteers take sign-up sheets to their home wards. Clearly, though, the Provo MTC's location is advantageous.
"It would be difficult to run this program anywhere but next to the BYU campus" where students and returned missionaries are heavily recruited as volunteers, said Brother Ware.
Volunteers from the community are especially needed during the summer months when BYU students are in smaller supply.
Families with children are also urged to participate as investigators, giving the missionaries a more realistic experience.
Jose Leo Valladares, a returned missionary, BYU student, and teacher for a year and a half at the MTC, said many of the volunteers — already Church members — are looking for the "missionary spirit" they felt at their own conversion. So, in a sense, he said, "they're real investigators." Because of their own experience as converts, "they know how to help the missionaries."
He considers the teaching center "a holy place, a connection between the MTC and the outside world," Brother Valladares says, and he is grateful to inspired leaders who have provided a way for Church members outside the MTC to be productive in helping the missionaries prepare to serve.
