On Monday, the Mexico City MTC moved from a smaller building near the Mexico City Temple to a 90-acre campus that recently housed a private Church high school, the Benemerito de las Americas. At the MTC’s old location, around 125 missionaries were trained at a time, most from Mexico and Central America. The new location can accommodate over 1,000 missionaries — nearly 10 times more, and the second highest of all MTCs in the world. As the Church trains an unprecedented number of new missionaries this summer, groups of several hundred North American missionaries will join missionaries from Central and South America at the Mexico MTC, all preparing to teach about Jesus Christ and the Church in Spanish.
Mexico MTC President Carl Pratt said while the move will be an adjustment, the larger MTC will enable more missionaries serving in Spanish-speaking areas to train together, which will result in more effective training.
The church currently has 15 missionary training centers, at which “missionaries receive religious instruction and language training and learn teaching skills.”
“They also develop a respect and cultural understanding for the areas and countries where they will serve before traveling to destinations in more than 150 countries,” the Newsroom article said.
The Church currently operates mission training centers in Mexico City, Mexico; Provo, Utah; and 13 other locations (see list below). All MTCs follow the same standard training curriculum. Missionaries receive training for either two weeks in their native language or six to eight weeks in a second language.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Areas Served: Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay
Training language: Spanish
São Paulo, Brazil
Areas Served: Brazil, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Angola
Training language: Portuguese
Santiago, Chile
Area Served: Chile
Training language: Spanish
Bogota, Colombia
Areas Served: Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela
Training language: Spanish
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Areas Served: Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, West Indies
Training languages: English (native speakers only), French/Creole (native speakers only), Spanish
Preston, England
Areas Served: Great Britain, German-speaking Europe
Training languages: German, English
Accra, Ghana
Areas Served: West Africa, DR Congo, Madagascar
Training languages: English (native speakers only), French
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Areas Served: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
Training language: Spanish
Auckland, New Zealand
Areas Served: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga
Training languages: English, English as a Second Language, French (native speakers only), Samoan (native speakers only), Tongan (native speakers only)
Lima, Peru
Areas Served: Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru
Training language: Spanish
Manila, Philippines
Areas Served: All missions in the Philippines and Asia areas
Training languages: Cambodian, Cebuano, English, Indonesian, Mandarin, Mongolian, Tagalog, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese (all languages except Tagalog native speakers only)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Areas Served: Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Training language: English (native speakers only)
Madrid, Spain
Areas Served: Belgium, Cape Verde, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine
Training languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Russian (all languages except Spanish and Russian native speakers only)
In addition to classrooms, the new MTC facility has 50 homes and two large dormitories that will be used to house missionaries. It also includes kitchen, dining and exercise areas. To assist with the high volume of missionaries this summer, about 30 teachers from the Provo MTC will work in Mexico in the coming months for six weeks at a time. Eventually, the Mexico MTC will employ up to 150 part-time teachers, and all will live in the area.
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