Provo MTC: A base camp for discipleship

From a humble mission home to a world-class institution, here’s how the Provo Missionary Training Center has prepared missionaries to testify of Christ around the world

20 Oct 2026, 4:10 p.m. MDT

The Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Editor’s note: This and other related articles were published September 2026 in the Deseret News’ magazine titled Missionary Work in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

These young adults with black name tags are more than ambitious high school graduates; they’re a battalion of the Lord’s servants training to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Their journey to full-time missionary service begins at a missionary training center — a base camp, of sorts, for discipleship. From myriad countries they gather. Toward one purpose they unite: inviting all around the globe to come unto the Savior through His gospel.

See a message to readers and more articles from the Missionary Work magazine.

One companionship reads together Matthew 28:19, Christ’s great commission, displayed on a nearby wall. A sister smiles while offering her first prayer in Tagalog. An elder with eyes fixed on the Book of Mormon discovers a vivacious enjoyment for the scriptures.

It’s a scene of becoming, not just being; of sharing the Light of Christ, not just receiving it; of taking upon the Savior’s name, not just reading about Him. New missionaries delight in the Spirit they’ve never felt more strongly.

With the capacity to house and train 3,400 missionaries, the Provo Missionary Training Center spans across 16 buildings on a 39-acre site in Provo, Utah. Sisters and elders stay here for three, six or nine weeks, depending on if they’re learning one of the more than 60 languages the center teaches.

Here’s a history of missionary training in this dispensation and how the Provo MTC has come to prepare hundreds of thousands of missionaries to testify of Christ around the world.

Missionaries study in class at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

School of the Prophets: A precursor to MTCs

In December 1832, almost three years after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, only a few thousand baptized members had converted to the Savior’s restored gospel.

The Prophet Joseph Smith met with the high priests of the Church in Kirtland, Ohio, and invited all present to pray “separately and vocally to the Lord to reveal his will unto us concerning the upbuilding of Zion” (Doctrine and Covenants 88, section heading).

The Lord’s response was revelation recorded in section 88. And among its doctrine about the Light of Christ and eternal law and building temples was the directive to preach the gospel (see verses 81–85).

This command was accompanied by missionary training through the School of the Prophets, held each winter in Kirtland from 1833 to 1836. Elders would “teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom” and “be prepared in all things” (verses 77–80).

The Lord gave those early missionaries an invitation and a promise: “Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand” (verse 78).

From mission home to world-class training center

A century before today’s 11 MTCs around the world, missionary training centers began as a humble mission home in Salt Lake City. It held only a hundred elders and sisters.

Since no language training was yet offered, missionaries assigned to preach in another language would stay in their mission for up to six months longer to develop language skills in the field.

What happened in the following decades would establish a missionary training center as dynamic, as expanding, as spiritually enriching as the battalions who’ve trained there.

Senior missionaries in a classroom smiling. — In preparation for their upcoming missions, Elder John Hatch, Sister Sandra Hatch, Sister Janice Hatch and Elder Paul Hatch attend a "Preach My Gospel" class at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Here’s a timeline of key events and changes that led the Provo MTC into what it is today.

1925: A Church Missionary Home and Preparatory Training School, or Salt Lake Mission Home, was established near Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Up to 99 missionaries would stay for a weeklong training — which didn’t offer language instruction — then be set apart for mission service by a general authority.

Dec. 4, 1961: The Missionary Language Institute, established on the BYU campus, began its inaugural class with 14 missionaries assigned to Argentina and 16 to Mexico. Missionaries were oriented in Salt Lake City before their language training in Provo.

June 16, 1963: The Missionary Language Institute was renamed the Language Training Mission, and the director was given the status of mission president. The facility included training in Spanish, Portuguese and German, then in Navajo and French four years later. English-speaking missionaries still attended the Salt Lake Mission Home.

1968: Church leaders decided to offer language training in 16 languages. Because training space was limited in Provo, this effort included establishing an LTM at the Church College of Hawaii for Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Polynesian languages and at Ricks College in Idaho for Dutch and Scandinavian languages.

July 18, 1974: Ground was broken for the Provo Language Training Mission complex. President Ezra Taft Benson, then president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, presided over the groundbreaking.

1975–76: The LTMs at the Church College of Hawaii and at Ricks College were closed in 1975 and 1976, respectively, and all language training moved to Provo.

Aug. 3, 1976: The first missionaries entered the new Language Training Mission, the month before its dedication.

Sept. 27, 1976: Church President Spencer W. Kimball dedicated the Provo Language Training Mission. Some 1,300 full-time missionaries were in training at the time.

October 1978: The Salt Lake Mission Home was closed, so even missionaries called to English-speaking missions were oriented in the Language Training Mission. The LTM was accordingly renamed the Missionary Training Center. With a larger facility to accommodate elders and sisters, missionaries assigned to English-speaking countries stayed four weeks at the MTC, while those called to non-English-speaking countries stayed eight weeks.

1980: Internal organization at the MTC was restructured. Missionaries were organized into branches, and branch presidents were called from among Church members in the Provo area. General authorities began speaking at MTC devotionals.

Missionaries take notes during a devotional at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. | Jeffrey D. Allred, for the Deseret News

July 31–Aug. 19, 2017: The MTC held an open house for public tours, prior to the dedication of two new buildings.

Oct. 13, 2017: President Henry B. Eyring, then first counselor in the First Presidency, dedicated an expansion to the MTC. Added were two six-story buildings with 200 new classrooms, more than 100 practice teaching rooms and 13 computer labs, along with new outdoor gardens. The buildings have extensive glass exteriors to draw in natural light.

May 2019: The Church announced the demolition of the MTC’s five oldest training buildings to install open space for study and contemplation. Built in the late 1970s, the five buildings had dated electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems and had not been in use since the new training buildings were completed in 2017.

March 16, 2020: With the COVID-19 pandemic in early stages, missionaries scheduled to enter the Provo MTC begin missionary training virtually. Years after pandemic restrictions ended, most missionaries still have one or two weeks of at-home training before attending an MTC in person.

June 23, 2021: The Provo MTC welcomed new missionaries in person for the first time in 15 months.

September 2025: The Church announced plans to rebuild the MTC’s cafeteria and administration buildings. The existing cafeteria and administration buildings will be removed, but the MTC remains fully operational throughout the multiyear project.

MTCs: ‘A major part in the Lord’s great cause’

Before dedicating the Provo MTC’s two new buildings in 2017, President Eyring said missionary training centers “play a major part in the Lord’s great cause of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the children of Heavenly Father in all the world.”

With nearly 90,000 missionaries now serving worldwide, this base camp isn’t just teaching them the gospel; it’s teaching them to draw closer to Heavenly Father through the Savior and to help His children do the same.