Three Missionary Training Centers, including the flagship campus in Provo, will welcome back a limited number of missionaries for on-site training in late June, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Monday.
The Provo MTC will allow about 150 to 250 new missionaries each week, while the Ghana and New Zealand facilities will accept about 50 missionaries each, according to a news release from the Utah-based faith.
Provo’s MTC will allow only missionaries from the U.S. who aren’t learning a new language, while the Ghana and New Zealand MTCs will let in local missionaries.
Missionaries training at the Provo MTC must also be fully vaccinated.
Missionaries and local leaders will be contacted directly if they will be invited to attend an MTC on-site. Otherwise, new missionaries will continue with online training, which will move to a Monday start.
For missionaries who are invited to train on-site, a negative COVID-19 test will be required before arrival. COVID-19 tests will be administered to any missionary who shows symptoms during their training.
As MTCs resume on-site training, most new missionaries will begin their training online and then move to an MTC, the release states, which “will allow missionaries to continue to experience many of the positive elements of online training.”
The church’s 10 MTCs, located everywhere from England to Mexico, shut down last spring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The young prospective proselytizers, starting at age 18 for young men and 19 for young women, shifted to online, at-home learning experiences.
All the MTCs have been providing this virtual training during the pandemic, the release notes. The remaining seven centers will resume their on-site training as conditions allow.
Before the coronavirus, Provo’s 35-acre Missionary Training Center, where Latter-day Saints typically undergo intensive language study and gospel grounding before embarking on their volunteer service, was filled with 3,700 proselytizers-in-waiting learning more than 50 languages as well as how to present the faith to the world. It was expanded in 2017.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Provo Missionary Training Center.
