"A new missionary training center will be opened in Bangkok, Thailand, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on Wednesday. The training center will accommodate missionaries from southeast Asia and other regions, according to a church news release. It will be an annex of the complex surrounding the Bangkok Thailand Temple, which was dedicated in October. The training center will open in January. This will be the 10th missionary training center, or MTC operated by the church, in addition to training centers throughout the world — in Brazil, England, Ghana, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa and Provo."
Notice where the focus is per the locations. As I thought more about Missionary Training Centers and how they are trained. It occurred to me that this is no different than a Multi-Level Marketing setup. They pretty well mirror each other, except the rewards are statistical bragging rights and the adoration of ward members, with the ultimate reward of getting to the top of the pyramid by becoming an AP. This also supports a prior post of the observation that the missionaries are nothing but a sales force.
"This also supports a prior post of the observation that the missionaries are nothing but a sales force."
That was the second red flag I ignored when I entered the MTC. The first red flag was an overwhelming feeling of dread when I first walked through the doors of the prison-like building. Wasn't I supposed to feel the spirit?
The second red flag was the unsettling observation that I was part of a corporate-like sales training effort. All the elders in their suits and sisters in their skirts/dresses looked like they were sales people for IMB. We attended all-day classes that were focused on practicing our sales approach. The GAs were there to give us pep talks and get us revved up to sell the Mormon gospel and baptize. It was very unsettling.
Sadly I ignored both red flags. I was still deep in the "I know the church is true" mode and nothing was going prevent me from letting go of the iron rod of deceit.
Heartless Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Don't they spend several weeks of extreme torture > at home, online, to learn things while pretending > to be a missionary?
I'm thinking that in other countries, the church needs them to be isolated from their families to fully indoctrinate them. Also, I'm thinking that many rural areas don't have the full data supported internet to support face time. It might actually be cheaper for the church to have an MTC center than to try to do it 100% remote.