MTC and Onward . . .

On Monday, 3 April 2017, I entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, UT. Usually new missionaries arrive, prepared to leave on their missions; they stay in dorms on campus (near the Brigham Young University campus) at night and participate in classes during the day. This intake had more senior missionaries than they had dorms, so the "excess" were housed in local hotels. Since it was an option, rather than stay in a hotel, I chose to go home every night and sleep in my own bed. The best of two worlds; missionary training by day and home life by night.


We were quickly given our newly minted name badges and introduced to the agenda for the week. Toward the end of the day we were divided into districts. Our group of senior missionaries had more single sisters than usual -- eleven. We became a district of our own. One of our early tasks was to come up with a name for our district. Just two weeks previously had been the General Women's Session of General Conference in which Sister Linda K. Burton, General Relief Society President, gave a talk entitled "Certain Women." She talked of "certain women" mentioned in the New Testament and then went on to talk of synonyms for the word "certain" - convinced, positive, confident, firm, definite, assured, and dependable. We determined that our district would be called "Certain Sisters" and made a nameplate for our classroom door that would reflect that name and our certainty that the gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The first week we were taught from and about "Preach My Gospel," the manual of missionary lessons and training. The second week, those of us who were headed for mission offices were taught the nitty gritty of various mission office tasks. I had expected the lessons of this week to not have the spiritual content of the first week. Not so. We learned that we not only "grease the wheels" of mission mechanics, but also provide strength, support, and examples for the young missionaries and teaching to any willing ear we encounter. It sounded so easy, there in the security of the MTC. 

During the week, I posed with my companion for the obligatory picture, pointing to the location of our missions.  Sister Ambrose was going to the Raleigh North Carolina Mission to serve as Mission Secretary under, as president, the same man for whom she had been legal secretary for twenty years. 

Our district of "Certain Sisters" with one of our teachers, front left

Someone also took pictures of all the senior missionaries, divided into several groups in order to accommodate all of us. 

Sister Ambrose and I are in the center