Effective time management — Missionary Training Center presentation
Proper use of time — Provo Missionary Training Center
Ecclesiastical Leaders minister to missionaries one by one to help them understand the Savior’s command to become as He is as they prepare to fulfill their purpose.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON — OVERVIEW
- Ecclesiastical leaders at all global MTCs are asked to plan, structure and carry out Sunday activities that strengthen missionaries’ personal conversion to become as He is and help them deepen their understanding of basic Doctrine.
- Provo MTC Branch Presidencies are asked to structure missionary and ecclesiastical leaders’ time with planned activities between 11:30 am and 3:30 pm to meet these objectives.
- Missionaries are asked to structure and plan their own activities between 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm that are consistent with their purpose and appropriate for the Sabbath. Ecclesiastical leaders could provide training to help missionaries accomplish this objective.
SUNDAY 11:30 AM TO 3:30 PM –– LEARNING TIME STRUCTURED BY BRANCH — ECCLESIASTICAL LEADERS’ GUIDING PRINCIPLES
- Create an intentional and deliberate schedule that helps missionaries learn to become as He is and optimizes missionary’s use of time.
- Recognize individual progress and differences in missionary tenure (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3…Week 6… Week 9).
- Ensure missionaries eat lunch and dinner at the assigned time for the branch.
- Engage in positive, productive learning activities as determined by the branch presidency.
- Appropriately use technology.
- Ensure that all missionaries are involved in directed learning activities or group instruction while leaders and selected missionaries are engaged in individual or small group activities, such as interviews, one by one training, leadership training, and teaching missionaries how to teach lessons in District Council, Priesthood or Relief Society Meetings.
- Avoid a schedule with vaguely defined, purposeless periods of open time which limit learning.
- Allows time for missionary training directed by the MTC Presidency, such as Match His Message (first week missionaries), Departure Devotional (Sunday before departure) and Mission Conference (Fast Sunday).
Training
- Create an environment conducive to inspiration and personal revelation.
- Engage missionaries by helping them be responsible for their own learning.
- Follow Preach My Gospel Summarized Teaching Principles, using a variety of engaged learning activities and methods, including:z
- Asking inspired questions, having companionships, small groups, and large groups respond.
- Limiting single learning or training activities to 20 to 40 minutes.
- Talking less while allowing missionaries to be highly involved in learning by sharing insights and talking more.
- Actively engage all missionaries in learning the principles of the creation, the fall and agency as well as the pattern of dispensations and apostasy and the Doctrine of Christ as contained in Preach My Gospel, chapter 3, lessons 1, 2 and 3. Center other training on topics contained in Preach My Gospel, chapters 1 through 6.
- The training in the afternoon is to help missionaries to become as He is, not to teach them how to teach investigators.
SUNDAY 3:30 PM TO 6:30 PM –– STRUCTURED BY THE MISSIONARY
Guiding Principles
- Each Sunday missionaries should counsel with their companion and choose how best to use this time.
- As missionaries consider activities they should evaluate the relative merits of an activity and engage the guiding principle of good, better, best.
Activities
Missionaries could choose to productively use this time to:
- Receive inspiration and revelation through personal study and prayer, including study of The Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel and language.
- Hold daily planning and/or weekly planning, setting goals and making plans as a companionship.
- Hold companionship inventory.
- Companion study to prepare for upcoming teaching appointments.
- Prepare to sing in the MTC choir by attending choir practice.
- Preparing for upcoming priesthood, relief society, or district meeting lessons.
- Eat dinner at the assigned time for their branch, depending upon participation in the choir or attendance at the departure devotional.
Missionaries should not use this time for purposeless activities or any activities that detract from their missionary purpose or their call. Missionaries should be seated for the Sunday Devotional by 6:30 pm.
Click here to return to the Talks and Presentations index