MTC Presidents Counseled to Teach and Testify

“You are to go out to testify and teach and train and impress young people of who they are,” Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told seven new missionary training center presidents at the end of their weeklong training seminar in the Provo Missionary Training Center.

“The great miracle in this work is the change in people. Each comes out of the waters of baptism a new person,” he said.

Referring to the rapid growth of the Church, Elder Haight told the new presidents, “We have the challenge of organizing the Church, to see that it carries on with the spiritual direction received by our prophets.”

He gave a short history of the growth of the Church, which began in 1830 with just six members, and went on to say: “By the 1900s, the Church had about 283,000 members. One hundred years later, on January 1 of this year 2000, we’re pushing 11 million. It’s a great story, of course, of how it all took place. And so here we are now. We have 15 missionary training centers out in the world, and you’re going to preside over one of them, in Tokyo or Santiago or Buenos Aires or elsewhere.”

Explaining the role of a missionary training center president in the missionary work of the Church, Elder Haight said: “It is your great responsibility to see that those missionaries who go through your hands have a spiritual experience. They will look at you and see how you conduct yourself and how you treat others.

“You will become the Church in their eyes. They will watch you. They will listen very carefully as you teach, testify, and train them. They will learn how to act as missionaries from your example.”

Elder David B. Haight makes a point during his talk to new missionary training center presidents. (Photo by Michael Brandy, Church News.)