By Debra Taylor
October 2011
Since being in the Philippines Missionary Training Center (MTC) people have asked what the MTC is like.
Obviously, the MTC is a center to prepare people to become missionaries. What it’s like is a little harder to explain. As I looked into the eyes of the missionaries the other day and thought about this question, I wondered to what I could compare their experience.
My attention was drawn to a missionary sitting on the back row. He had just returned from isolation in the hospital for suspected TB. I asked him, “how was your experience in the belly of the whale?” Then the thought occurred to me that maybe the MTC is similar to Jonah’s experience inside the whale.
Like Jonah, all missionaries receive the word of the Lord through the still small voice of the Holy Ghost. Today’s missionaries prepared and asked the bishop and stake president to call them into service. They were called and chosen. Each missionary received a signed letter from the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, in behalf of the Lord.
The Lord called Jonah to Nineveh and calls each of us to our own “type” of Nineveh. Sometimes it is easy to be brave and willing to go where the Lord wants us to go until the call really comes, and we are all alone. We may not realize how much we will miss our freedom, family, friends, cars, girlfriends, boyfriends, school, TV, laptops, I Pads, and cell phones. We may not like going to bed at 10:00 pm and arising at 6:00 am to be at gym at 6:15am. Jonah was worried when he received his specific call. Yes, there is a difference between Jonah and the modern missionaries. The difference is that our missionaries volunteered to go where ever the Lord wanted to send them.
As the story goes, Jonah tried to flee his assignment and ended up wet behind the ears, but the Lord in His mercy provided transportation to the mission field in the belly of a stinky fish to learn obedience.
The Lord also provides transportation for today’s missionaries and a nice stay inside the MTC. The White Handbook becomes their compass to their destination. The missionaries exchange the things left behind for a white shirt, Black Name Tag, Ministerial Certificate, scriptures, companion, humility, and sanctification through soul searching, prayer, and fasting. As they study the scriptures and “Preach My Gospel,” principles become clear and teaching becomes easier. They come to recognize the voice of the Lord and how He communicates to them personally. They receive the ordinances of the temple which give them power and authority to withstand evil. They come unto Christ.
Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the whale. The missionaries spend three weeks or more. The missionaries are deposited upon unknown countries like Jonah was vomited upon dry land. Their purpose past, present and future is to “Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.” PMG
Oh, that all God’s children could have the opportunity to be called to Nineveh and travel by whale.
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