The Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) is only one of fifteen scattered around the world for the training of missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Our week here has been a marvelous experience. Some 2,000 young men and women from around the globe spend from three weeks to three months preparing to go out into the “field” and share the Gospel message.  The facility is a large campus with classrooms for training in about 50 different languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese.  Yesterday we had the privilege of spending an afternoon with the small group of missionaries going to Sweden and felt the energy they had in trying to master this language.  They will leave after eight weeks with the equivalent vocabulary of an American High School student and will continue to study and learn while serving.  The training here has been excellent – while as senior missionaries we aren’t studying a language, we have been learning about teaching principles and how to strengthen the congregations with which we will be working.  We are also expected to support and be an example to the young missionaries, who are so dedicated.  I think we will be learning just as much from them.  The directors here are fine people, deeply spiritual and experienced in working with young people.  Just the logistics of feeding and housing this large group of transient missionaries is incredible.  There is a laundromat here where we do our laundry, the largest free laundromat in the world.  There is also wonderful, inspiring artwork adorning the walls.  My favorite picture is in the largest building, a six- story building with language labs that has a dozen huge murals.  The one I like best depicts a story from the Book of Mormon, showing the four sons of King Mosiah standing on a hill looking over a small city as they enter the land of their enemies to teach the Gospel.  Brave souls those boys!

So tonight, we complete our packing, and weighing our suitcases.  Tomorrow afternoon we catch a flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam.  We will arrive after a ten-hour flight, with an hour and a half layover, then another two hour flight to Arlanda airport in Stockholm.  I hope I can sleep tonight!