The Missionary Training Center turns 50

The Missionary Training Center recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in a devotional held on February 2. Speakers at the devotional included Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. From a story in the Deseret News, Elder Nelson shared a little bit of the history of the MTC:

"For many years in the 20th century," Elder Nelson recounted, "newly called missionaries had received some preparatory instruction at the Missionary Home in Salt Lake City. On Dec. 14, 1961, 14 elders assigned to Argentina and 15 elders assigned to Mexico moved from the Missionary Home to the newly created Missionary Language Institute on the Brigham Young University campus in Provo."  

Those missionaries walked the four-mile distance from the Hotel Roberts to the BYU Alumni House for instruction, Elder Nelson related. "With very little fanfare, formal language training for missionaries was thus begun in this dispensation."

More of Elder Nelson's remarks can be found here.

The Deseret News article included some great pictures, which can be seen here. Here are three that brought back a lot of memories from my two months in the MTC way back in March and April 1983. Those classrooms look exactly the same!

Elliot's February 6 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with several new pictures after the jump.

It's been a sweet week. Everything just seems to be falling into place. We had 9 new investigators and set baptismal dates with 3 of them. Members have been introducing us to their friends, people are coming to church, and everything's just going really smooth.

My birthday was super fun! I woke up to all of my roommates singing happy birthday, didn't eat because it was fast Sunday, went to church, went to a baptismal service for a couple of guys that are in the Spanish Branch, visited with Jan and the Holdaways, ate dinner at Sister Brown's house (breakfast for dinner, aw yeah) and then taught Angel, one of our investigators who has a baptismal date, which was sweet. At night I celebrated with the roommates by eating brownies that Sarah sent me [Sarah Kron, one of our favorite blog followers!]. It was a very cool birthday. Today's Elder Karl's b-day and we kicked it off by going mtb riding at Stanley Draper again [a repeat of last week's p-day activity]. There were some sweet jumps and stuff. We got some good videos. I'm pretty sure just about everyone who went crashed at one point or another, but everyone's good. Elder Karl taco-ed his front wheel pretty good though. Next we're off to Bricktown to see the sights and stuff. It should be sweet!

Love ya!

Elliot

A new picture and video of Elliot!

Elliot and Elder Karl paid another visit to the Randy Lusk family in Moore. Brother Lusk previously sent us a couple of videos of Elliot and Elder Soto at Thanksgiving. He wrote to us again today and sent a picture of Elliot and Elder Karl celebrating their birthdays, as well as a short video of Elliot showing off his musical talents! Enjoy.

Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter

Here is the most recent Newhall First Ward missionary newsletter from Sister Connie Hollingworth (pictured), with reports from Elliot, Javan Hatch, Kyle Hill, CJ Norris, and Carlton Reininger.  We really appreciate Sister Hollingworth putting this together every month!

Enjoy the newsletter after the jump.

Mormon Messages: "Jesus Teaches a Samaritan Woman"

Here is another of the Bible videos produced by the Church. This video tells the story of the woman of Samaria who encounters Christ at Jacob's well. The great promise made by the Savior to the Samaritan woman is found in John 4:13-14:

  13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
  14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Speaking of this promise, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said:

As at Jacob’s well, so today the Lord Jesus Christ is the only source of living water. It will quench the thirst of those suffering from the drought of divine truth that so afflicts the world. The words of the Lord to ancient Israel spoken by the prophet Jeremiah describe the condition of many of God’s children in our own day: “My people … have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out … broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” [Jeremiah 2:13] Too many of our Heavenly Father’s children spend their precious lives carving out broken cisterns of worldly gain that cannot hold the living water that satisfies fully their natural thirst for everlasting truth.

Enjoy the video. And you can read the full text of the story from the fourth chapter of John after the jump.

Happy Birthday, Elliot!

Today is Elliot's 21st birthday! This is his second and final birthday on his mission. In his last email, he mentioned that his current companion, Elder Karl, will have his birthday tomorrow, so they're having a big birthday weekend. They're being well-fed, today by the ward Relief Society President and tomorrow by President and Sister Taylor, so it should be a great birthday. And I'm sure Elliot would appreciate having the Chipmunks sing to him on his birthday.

Research on Religion Podcast: "Allison Pond on Being a Mormon Missionary"

About a month ago we posted a story about American Idol star David Archuleta and his decision to serve a Mormon mission. The primary source for that story was an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal written by Allison Pond, a Deseret News editorial writer. Sister Pond is a former missionary who served in Rostov-na-donu, Russia.

One reader of Sister Pond's WSJ article was a gentleman named Anthony Gill, Ph.D. Dr. Gill's CV indicates that he is a professor of political science at the University of Washington, and also a senior fellow with the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. After reading her story, Dr. Gill conducted an interview of Sister Pond about the experience of serving a Mormon mission. The interview was recorded and published today on the Institute's website. You can listen to the podcast of the interview here.

A related story in the Deseret News describes the interview:

Pond clearly and articulately explains her decision to serve a mission, life in the church's Missionary Training Center, the fears she encountered during her first day of street contacting in Russia and the positive overall experience her mission was for her — including some fun missionary moments. She also speaks about the unique religious world she encountered in Russia, as well as the benefits of her mission experience in her own life. 

"Missionaries are asked to do nothing less than defend a theology, which is really staggering when you think about it," Pond says during the 63-minute podcast. "None of these missionaries have been to divinity school. None of them have devoted their entire lives to this. It's just something they really believe in and they want to share ... and they rise to the occasion to become someone different and more converted."

It's a terrific interview, with great insights into the day-to-day experience of serving a mission, and well worth the time (slightly over an hour). Thanks to both Dr. Gill and Sister Pond for sharing it with us.

And since she's now been featured twice on Elliot's blog in just a month, here's a biography for Sister Pond, with a photo, from The Mormon Women Project:

Allison moved around quite a bit growing up, living in 16 houses by the age of 16 and attending kindergarten and first grade in Mexico City. She completed high school in Littleton, Colorado, and still thinks of Colorado as home. Allison received a BA in Journalism from Brigham Young University and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from Georgetown University. She has lived in Russia several times as a teacher, a missionary and a fugitive from cubicle life. Allison loves good novels, staying up late and extra sharp cheddar cheese.  

Allison is an editorial writer and columnist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah. She previously worked on public opinion surveys about religion and politics at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC.