By Jason Tang
Imagine a place where the chocolate milk flows like water off Niagara Falls, a place where thousands of single men and women walk the sidewalks. Doesn''t exist? Think again. Welcome to the Missionary Training Center.
Each Wednesday, hundreds of these young new missionaries enter while hundreds more enter into the mission field. The new missionaries come to learn how to teach, and some even learn a new language. However, no matter what language, or how new they are, one of the highlights for missionaries at the MTC happens outside the classroom and in an activity known as the Training Resource Center.
The TRC is an opportunity for missionaries to teach non-missionary volunteers and help them become proficient in teaching others about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
'It helps the missionaries,' said Ryan Funk, TRC coordinator at the Center for Service and Learning, and a returned missionary from the Philippines. 'Instead of teaching another missionary, they get to teach in a companionship and follow the spirit while working together to teach a discussion.'
However, to be able to teach as a companionship the missionaries need volunteers to teach. And that''s where Funk comes in. He is one of the recruiters who has the responsibility of getting people to come for a couple hours each week to play the part of an investigator.
'When you go to the TRC you act as an investigator for the missionaries,' Funk said. 'You get to basically help them train, so when they get out into the field they have already had practical experience in teaching.'
About 50 languages are being taught at the MTC, and the TRC needs volunteers who are fluent in each one of them so missionaries can get the practice they need, in the language they are learning.
Anthony Huynh, an English teacher at the MTC, and a returned missionary from New York, helps the missionaries prepare for their TRC experience twice in their three-week stay. Huynh said he has noticed a stark difference in their teaching before and after they visit the TRC.
'It gives them situations that are close to what they''ll have in the field,' Huynh said. 'Everything that we do in the classroom is put on show at the TRC. The improvement in their teaching is great. Their whole mindset changes when they teach investigators at the TRC, because they see that they''re actually helping people because of their teaching.'
Volunteers at the TRC can contribute to a missionary''s success with the language. Many missionaries benefit from the services that dedicated volunteers provide.
'The TRC softened the blow of teaching investigators,' said Elder Ben Bolin, from Scappoose, Ore., serving in the Utah, Provo Mission for the past year. 'You''re actually talking to real people instead of practicing teaching with your companion staring at a wall in the MTC.'
Funk not only recruits volunteers, but has also volunteered for the Tagalog language. Funk said he enjoys seeing missionaries who are going to serve where he served. He also likes keeping up on his own language skills and being involved in missionary work, despite returning home 22 months ago.
'For the volunteers, it''s a really fun experience,' Funk said. 'Because in a little way, it makes you part of the missionary work that is going on.'
Interested students can either sign up in the Center for Service and Learning in 2330 WSC or visit the MTC Web site at http://mtc.byu.edu under the volunteer link.