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Forty-Year History of the Philippines Missionary Training Center
From the time of its official establishment in 1961, Filipino members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were called as missionaries went directly to their assigned missions with no MTC training.
In a revelation, the Lord said: “Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men”. With this in mind, the Brethren felt inspired to establish a Missionary Training Center in the Philippines.
In 1983, a Missionary Training Center for the Philippines was opened at a rented house at 17 La Salle Street, Northeast Greenhills in San Juan, Metro Manila, with the first missionary training class held on October 3 for a pioneer group of sixteen elders and ten sisters. The first MTC directors were Bernard van Wagenen and his wife, with Anita Bombita, Regina Dagal, Bernadeth Bernal, Dionisio Quiliza, and Rafael Osumo as the first instructors. An adjoining house on the same street was also rented beginning November 8, 1985 to provide additional space for the increasing number of missionaries.
In 1989, two couples, Ramon and Annabelle Mariano, and Carmelino and Alicia Cawit, became the first Filipino Senior Missionary couples to attend the MTC. In 1985, the Church purchased the property across the street from the temple for the construction of Church facilities. In December 1990, two groundbreaking ceremonies were held, one for an administration building and another for a Missionary Training Center. By 1992, the Missionary Training Center was completed and dedicated on September 20 of that year by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone of the Seventy, with J. Weston Daw and his wife serving as MTC President.
The MTC could accommodate up to eighty missionaries, serving 13 Philippines missions and 10 foreign missions. As the Church continued to grow throughout the Asia-Pacific region, there was a need to expand the MTC facilities further. On June 22, 2007, ground was broken for an expanded MTC. From its previous capacity of 80 beds, the new MTC would now house up to 144 missionaries from the Philippines and neighboring Asian countries. Inspired by the Lord’s command to bring the gospel to all nations, ten flagpoles were erected to fly the flags of countries served by the expanded MTC, namely, the Philippines, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand.
The expanded MTC was dedicated on May 20, 2012, by then Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Prior to the dedication, we as Mission Leaders in the Philippines Quezon City Mission were asked by the Area Presidency to have our missionaries host an Open House at the MTC for one week, prior to the dedication. There were no MTC missionaries at the MTC during that week. Over 5,000 youth from the Metro Manila area came and visited the newly renovated MTC that week.
The timing of the new MTC’s dedication proved to be providential because during the Church’s 182nd Semiannual General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson announced the lowering of age requirements for missionary service. Churchwide, men could now begin serving at age eighteen and women at age nineteen.
In 1974, President Spencer W. Kimball looked forward to the day when the Filipino Saints would rise up and bring the gospel to their own people. He said “We should use their own young men as missionaries,” Gradually, President Kimball’s dream came true as more and more young Filipinos would “embark in the service of God” in a field so “white already to harvest”. From 2012 to 2014, the number of full-time missionaries in the Philippines increased from 2,380 to 4,482. Proudly, 2,383 of those were Filipinos.
In 2017, just six days after creating the Philippines’ 100th stake, Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated a more greatly expanded MTC. Two new buildings were added to the five-building campus, doubling the capacity from 144 to 280 missionaries. Elder Anderson said, “The Lord’s hand is upon the work we are dedicating today, and we will see great and marvelous things from these beginnings,” Elder Andersen predicted. “The Philippines and this MTC serve much of Asia. Languages will be taught here. People will be coming here in larger numbers.”
Recent renovations now allow for more than 300 missionaries to be housed here. Currently 13 languages are being taught at the MTC.
As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spreads across the earth in fulfillment of prophecy, the Philippines Missionary Training Center continues to pursue its sacred mandate to help prepare men and women to preach the restored gospel to “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people”
As we look forward to the Second Coming of the Savior, may the Philippines MTC fulfil its purpose until, as the Prophet Joseph Smith declared, the gospel has “penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”