Since 2020, the Home MTC has become a strange and sweet part of most families’ mission experience. Your missionary has a name tag, a schedule, and a district – and they are still sitting in your house!
For one or two weeks, your home becomes part of the MTC and the first transition point into mission life. We know it’s an amazing and new experience. Most families have no idea what to expect, so here’s what Home MTC days usually look like, along with some simple tips for making it truly unforgettable.
What Home MTC Looks Like
Every schedule is different, and that surprises a lot of parents. Some missionaries are in class until nine, ten, or even eleven at night because their MTC is in another time zone, while others finish in the afternoon and have the whole evening free. Many have class in the morning and again at night, with a long empty block in the middle.
Most missionaries have two or three classes per day, around three hours each, with breaks in between with the expectation that they will complete personal and companionship study. At-home training lasts one or two weeks depending on the mission and the language. So, your missionary may not be busy almost every minute of the day. Free time arrives in odd pieces, and it helps to know ahead of time what to do with it.
Creating The Right Environment
If there is one thing worth planning before day one, it is this!
Some missionaries do great in a shared space. An office next to the kitchen, a corner of the living room, or the dining table. They step out and talk during breaks instead of staying alone all day, and the family gets to hear them teach, practice the language, and laugh with their district. A lot of families say this was their favorite part of the whole two weeks, and the younger kids listen to all of it, too. If you try this, you’ll need to ensure that the house stays quieter than normal (at least surrounding the missionary’s area), which is a trade-off.
However, not every missionary wants a shared experience, and some may feel watched or simply want alone time in between long classes. The easiest thing to do is ask your missionary what they prefer. If they want to share the experience with the family, move the desk out to a common area, and if they wants their own space, let them have it. Both works!
What helps almost everyone is being able to move around, so if they have a portable laptop, they can change rooms, sit outside, or work from the porch when the weather is nice. A new view makes a big difference after so many hours of class, and you might have to get used to keeping things a bit quieter overall so your missionary feels free to roam.
Take Advantage of Breaks
Ask your missionary to send you their schedule the night before so you can see where gaps are. Ten minutes is enough for a snack, some fresh air, a walk to the corner, or a few photos in the driveway, and an hour is enough to eat together, run an errand, or go get a drink somewhere close.
The best thing you can do is simply be home when the breaks come! If you can move your work hours around for those two weeks, it is worth it, because those small moments end up being some of the best conversations you will have with them before they leave.
Let People Visit
Home MTC can feel quiet, and visits from friends or extended family can improve the whole day. It also helps to know what’s allowed before you start planning, and the guidelines are more open than many families expect.
Missionaries are encouraged to share what they are learning with family, leaders, and trusted friends, and those people can help them practice teaching outside of class. So, friends can bring lunch during a break, and grandparents, cousins, and neighbors can stop by to say goodbye. Family activities are welcome on preparation days and Sundays.
If someone from their district lives close by, they are allowed to meet for missionary activities, though not for overnight stays. The missionaries serving in your ward can also come for dinner, or your missionary can go out with them during a longer break to teach, which might become the highlight of the whole two weeks.
One important rule stays the same the whole time: whenever your missionary leaves the house, they should have a companion with them, and most of the time that will be someone from your family. Your stake president is his mission leader during these weeks, so you can ask him for more specific guidance if needed.
Ideas For The Quiet Hours
A few ideas that work well in short breaks:
- A Lego set or a puzzle left out on the table, so your missionary can sit down for ten minutes and walk away.
- Piano, and building a binder of hymn arrangements from the Church music website to take into the field, because a piano-playing missionary will be asked to play more often than they expect.
- Card games with younger siblings, short enough to finish in one break.
- A journal, with a few lines written every night.
- A fidget toy or pen to keep thier hands busy during long classes, which helps a lot if sitting still is hard for them.
- Walks, bike rides, or the gym after so many hours of sitting.
- Packing, and sorting through their room before they leave.
- Something new and fun, like learning to juggle.
Journaling is a good habit to start now rather than later, because the first weeks of a mission go by fast and the missionaries who are already writing every night are the ones who end up with a real record of it. Writing a few lines during Home MTC makes it feel natural by the time he gets to the MTC.
And if sitting down with a pen is just not their thing, check out Calld Journal. Calld calls your missionary as often as you decide, so they can tell the story of their day out loud, which is faster, easier, and a better overall experience than pen-and-paper journaling. Every call is saved as a dated entry in their digital mission journal, and they can even review and edit their entries via email and add photos to each entry. When they come home, those entries can be printed into a hardcover book!
Whether by phone or by the old-fashioned way, the Home MTC is a good opportunity to start the habit of journaling.
Ask Your Stake President About Media
While your missionary is at home, your stake president is their mission leader, and guidance may vary from stake to stake. Some ask families to turn media off completely, and others trust parents to choose what fits during those weeks.
Overall Church advice asks missionaries to start stepping away from television, movies, video games, and anything that does not meet missionary standards, so this is a good time to begin that change together. Ask early so everyone knows the rules, and then keep it simple.
If the First Days Feel Hard…
The first two or three days feel like a huge change because your missionary is learning a new schedule, maybe a new language, a new way to study, and a new way to rest, all at the same time. It is normal for that to feel like a lot at first.
A few things are worth saying out loud. The Home MTC part is short, just one or two weeks, and then everything changes again. This small introduction to missioanry life is not how the whole mission will feel, because Home MTC is the only part of it spent in front of a screen, and what comes next is in person, busy, and full of people. Most missionaries find the MTC easier than Home MTC, and the field better still.
For You
These weeks are a gift for you too, with a few more favorite dinners, late-night talks, and the chance to hear your missionary teach before anyone else does.
Their mission starts here, at home, with all of you around them. It is a busy couple of weeks, and it goes by faster than you think. Enjoy it.
Starting Home MTC soon? Don’t forget to preserve your experiences. See our missionary memory books.
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