Attending a Missionary Training Center (MTC) is an unparalleled opportunity for spiritual growth. While this is a sacred and exciting time, missionaries also need to learn how to adjust to the unique physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual demands of their callings.
To support them as they embark on this new MTC adventure, here are three reminders that you might share with them in your next email or call.
1. Feeling Overwhelmed is Normal
First, it’s OK to feel overwhelmed at the MTC! This response is completely normal, and it can even become an advantage in training for missionary service.
Encourage your missionary to use these feelings as a launching point for trusting in the Lord. Addressing new missionaries, author John Bytheway wrote:
“You’ll feel overwhelmed at the amount of material you’re asked to master, and you’ll be amazed that with the Lord’s help you can actually do it. That last sentence went by really fast, so I think I’ll repeat it for emphasis. You will feel overwhelmed. Did you get that? Every missionary I’ve ever known has made that comment about the MTC. That overwhelmed feeling is good, though, because it will help you realize how much you need the Lord.”
When missionaries acknowledge their limitations and rely on the Lord, they experience His power in even greater measure, getting front-row seats to witnessing His miracles. As Sister Kalleen Lund put it, a mission is a “miracle-a-day program.”
Encourage missionaries to be patient with themselves, even if that means just focusing on a day at a time. They will have their entire missions (and lives) to keep learning the gospel of Jesus Christ, and there’s no rush to reach specific milestones before their training is up.
Being at an MTC is often compared to drinking water from a spiritual firehose, and it’s important for missionaries to focus on taking only one spiritual step at a time.
2. Remember the True Teacher
One thing that leads to feeling overwhelmed in the MTC is focusing on personal limitations or inadequacies. A comforting reminder is that while a missionary’s role is to support the teaching and spiritual conversion process, it is ultimately the Lord’s work.
He called your missionary specifically—gifts, limitations, and all. He will make everything work together for their good, blessing them as they prepare to serve His children.
In the 2024 seminar for new mission leaders, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said: “If the Lord’s work appears difficult, don’t worry. If you go and do, the Lord will provide a way. Remember, it is His work.”
The Holy Ghost is the Lord’s true teacher, and He can magnify a missionary’s efforts and use their words to help people recognize the reality of the gospel.
A new missionary might appreciate this counsel from Elder Gene R. Cook of the Seventy, which is included in Preach My Gospel: “You are an instrument, not the teacher. The Lord is the One who knows the needs of those being taught. He is the One who can impress someone’s heart and cause them to change.”
3. Make Time Count
Attending an MTC is an unmatched opportunity for a missionary to focus on strengthening their relationship with the Lord.
Depending on their assignment, they will spend three to nine weeks training for missionary service, with one to two of these weeks devoted to online, at-home training. In the larger picture of a lifetime, this season is only a tiny fraction. Keeping this perspective in mind can be helpful motivation for missionaries to make the most of their training.
Another meaning of MTC, as John Bytheway suggests, is “make time count.” He wrote:
“If I had only one message to give you about the MTC, this would be it: Make time count. Your time in one of the best places on earth is so short. Make the most of it. Use every minute. Learn all you can. In reality, because you are doing the Lord’s work, your time becomes his time. Make it count!”
As missionaries focus on maximizing their time at the MTC and appreciating the moment, the Lord can lighten burdens like fear or homesickness. In the wise words of President Ezra Taft Benson, diligence is key to creating a great experience:
“I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”
For more ideas about how to support a missionary, read the articles below:
▶ 3 scriptures to bolster a missionary (that they might’ve not heard before)
▶ Does your missionary struggle to feel successful? This idea in Steve Young’s new book will help
▶ What to say to help your missionary through a hard time
