New procedure at Provo MTC
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When Jim and Suzy Cannon of the Country Lane Ward, Kaysville Utah South Stake, dropped off their oldest son, Brad, at the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, June 3, it was a far different experience than they had anticipated.
As recently as the Sunday before, they were looking forward to entering the MTC with Brad, who has been called to serve in the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission, and sitting in a brief orientation with him before he and they exited on opposite sides of the hall.
But due to cases of swine flu diagnosed among missionaries at the MTC, the Cannons were informed Sunday afternoon, May 31, by a telephone call from the Missionary Department, as were the families of the approximately 500 other missionaries scheduled to report Wednesday, that they would be saying their goodbyes outside the front door.
Elder Richard G. Hinckley of the Seventy and executive director of the Missionary Department, announced the procedural change during a press conference in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Monday morning.
He noted that many of the new missionaries fly to Utah alone from other states and countries. But, Elder Hinckley said, "Those [family members] who typically do accompany the missionaries from this area will be asked to drop them off, from this point forward in time, at the MTC and say goodbye to them at the doorstep and not come into the building."
The recent flu outbreak, characterized as minor by Elder Hinckley and Dr. Donald Doty, chairman of the Missionary Department health services, led to the immediate implementation of the new drop-off policy. "This was coming anyway within a month or so," Elder Hinckley said.
The system allowing family members to enter the MTC with their missionaries, which, according to Elder Hinckley, was unique to the Provo MTC, typically brought more than 1,000 additional people into the facility each week. That increased the risk of some entering ill and infecting others, including missionaries.
Elder Hinckley said, "We just have a very difficult time, logistically, accommodating [the extra people in the MTC], let alone the health risks we run."
As the Provo MTC adopts the drop-off system that has always been the procedure at the other 15 MTCs around the world, it will end what had become a Provo tradition.
"We'll do some things to mitigate that," Elder Hinckley said. "We hope to produce a nice little DVD that we can send out with the call package showing the MTC and what we do there and let the families, that way, get a very intimate look at the insides of the MTC without the cumbersome logistics of having them actually come into the buildings."
Even before the latest policy change, the Church has taken extreme precautions to protect the health of the missionaries in the Provo MTC, as well as the other 15.
With the three recent confirmed cases of swine flu in Provo, along with 17 other missionaries who tested positive for type A flu virus, steps were taken to keep the contagious illnesses from spreading.
"We've had protocol in place now for these kinds of things for a number of years," Elder Hinckley said. It includes such precautions as isolating the ill missionaries, medical treatment and delivery of meals to them directly rather than their going to the cafeteria. "These kinds of precautions have been in place for some time," he said. "Whenever you have 2,000 young men and women together, you just simply have precautions no matter how healthy they are."
Dr. Doty said the current flu cases at the MTC were mild conditions and added, "That we only have 20 cases I think is pretty remarkable because this virus is very, very contagious."
As an added precaution, Elder Hinckley said parents of incoming missionaries were contacted and asked to make sure their missionaries are healthy before they report to the MTC, and missionaries scheduled to leave the MTC for their mission fields will be held an extra five to seven days.
He said, "We want to send a message that this should not be of concern. This is a typical situation. Protocols have been in place and are in place. We're being a little extra cautious by holding missionaries there. Medically speaking, that may not be indicated, but we're doing that as an extra precaution. So we hope that parents will be very satisfied that we're doing everything that we can do."
For young men and women who may be ill at the time they are to report to the MTC, Elder Hinckley said they should stay home and get well. "We can always reschedule their MTC date," he said.
