History Repeated

In the “Olden Days”, when a person was called on a Mission, you reported to the Mission Home in Salt Lake for a week of training and then they shipped you out to the field. In February of 1963, when I was called to serve in the West Mexican Mission, I dutifully reported to the Mission Home which was located where the Conference Center is now. At the end of the week, rather than sending me to Mexico, I was sent to Provo to the newly organized Language Training Center housed at Allen Hall. This was an experiment by the Church to see if they could speed up the language learning time in the field. There was one group ahead of ours that had been there two weeks. I spent 5 months there learning Spanish and waiting for Visas into Mexico. During that time, the LTC grew from 45 missionaries to over 300. Portuguese and German were added and it became the Language Training Mission. This was the beginnings of the MTC.

Now, 46 years later, Lynette and I find ourselves in much the same situation; in an experimental program for the Church. We attended our first training meeting last night for our mission. It was a really eye-opener. We found that what we are doing is only being done in that ward in the entire Church, only in the Grandview 20^th. Yes, there are other Church Service Missionaries but none that are doing what we will be doing. Some of our duties will be working directly with the full time missionaries, teaching and converting non-members. We are the only Service Missionaries that are actually authorized by the Area President, under the direction of the full time missionaries, to teach from Preach My Gospel to investigators. We may be asked to split with the missionaries or if need be go on or own and teach missionary lessons when the full time missionaries are not available. No where else in the Church is this being done. If it works out, as it seem to so far, it will be expanded in other parts of the world.

It as close to real missionary work as you can get. Even full time missionary couples do not teach investigators, they refer them to the missionaries to teach. This is a real special opportunity that neither one of us thought we would ever have. We really feel like pioneers.