Touring the MTC

When I saw on lds.org that the Provo Missionary Training Center would hold tours for the public, I immediately marked my calendar to remind me of when tickets would become available.  I was excited to give the kids an idea of what it would be like to become a missionary, and I thought wanted to satisfy my own curiosity.

We attended the open house at the beginning of August.  Because of scheduling, I had to take the kids at a time when Ben wasn't available to join us.  I was a little nervous that they would be difficult to manage, perhaps even disrespectful or unruly while we were walking through this special place, but they were actually very well-behaved and pretty attentive.  The new additions to the MTC are just amazing, and it was inspiring to think of all of the men and women who need this amazing, enormous facility in order to prepare to serve the Lord.

On the bus from the stadium parking lot to the MTC.

Where do you want to go on a mission?
Cat - Italy
Jack - Florida (or Tennessee, but he pointed to Florida)
Eliza - Japan (couldn't quite find it in time and there were lots of people waiting to take pictures)
Luke - Mexico

It's too bad these guys don't like each other at all.

Look!  I'm in another picture!

There were lots of large-scale photographs and paintings throughout the new buildings,
as well as beautiful smaller ones.

There aren't enough flagpoles in this courtyard to represent all of the countries
missionaries travel to, so they rotate the flags every day so that all of the countries are represented.

I might have offered a little incentive for the kids to behave during the tour.
And they all happily enjoyed it as soon as we finished.

We all really enjoyed the tour and felt the spirit testifying of the importance of the great work of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was also a good reminder for me of the necessity of teaching my kids about missionary work, since we don't get one-on-one time with missionaries where we live.