Provo MTC Expansion

The expansion of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, is an expression and fulfillment of the “Mormon missionary miracle,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, at ground-breaking ceremonies for the project.

Speaking on 24 October 1991, President Hinckley said the missionary program has tremendous consequences. “No one can foretell the work of a missionary, not even the missionary himself, because out of his efforts there grows a work which goes on … for generations.”

The expansion project will add 199,000 square feet to the facility, increasing the size of the MTC by almost a third. The addition, said President Hinckley, is equivalent to the square footage of eight new stake centers.

“Hopefully what occurs here in this facility, with its addition, will bear fruit in members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who will require not just eight new stake centers, but eighty, or eight hundred, or eight thousand in the years to come.

“Such is the multiple effect of the work that comes from this tremendous responsibility to go into the world and preach the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.”

Plans call for a multipurpose building for orientation meetings, devotionals, firesides, conferences, and recreational activities; a four-story residence hall; an additional four-story classroom building; and a new entrance to the overall training complex.

The MTC capacity will increase from 3,000 to 4,000 missionaries. Also as part of the expansion, a 40,000-square-foot gymnasium will be remodeled into a cafeteria.

“I feel profoundly grateful that there is enough of faith in this Church to send, by the tens of thousands, young men and young women with older couples out into the world to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as restored through the Prophet Joseph,” President Hinckley said.

The amount of money needed to send out 45,000 missionaries is staggering, and it “represents a spirit of consecration almost beyond our capacity to realize. And I am grateful very much for the faith of our people—the magnificent, wonderful, simple, powerful faith of the Latter-day Saints who pay their tithing … to make possible … the construction of buildings such as this.

“God be thanked for the faith of our people. What we do today is an expression of faith that will bear fruit in the lives of people in hundreds of nations and for generations yet to come.”

President Hinckley said he hopes to see more missionary training centers, such as the ones already in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, England, Guatemala, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Peru, Samoa, and Tonga.

“The very music of those names [of the centers], to me, becomes a miracle in and of itself. I have had the privilege and the opportunity to see in a very real, intimate, close, personal way the evolution and growth—tremendous growth—of this remarkable program.”

Quoting from section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants, President Hinckley outlined the purpose of missionary training centers: so that every man might speak in the name of the Lord, so that faith might increase, so that the everlasting covenant might be established, and so that the fulness of the gospel might be preached to the world. (See D&C 1:20–23.)

President Hinckley gave the main address at the ceremonies conducted by Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve and attended by many Church and local government leaders, including Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin and BYU President Rex E. Lee.

President Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency (right) and Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve participate in ground-breaking ceremonies for expansion at the Provo Missionary Training Center. (Photo by Eliza Tanner.)