Curbside goodbyes at the MTC

PROVO — Typical for a Wednesday at the Missionary Training Center, teary embraces and determined smiles punctuated the scene, as some 500 new missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were dropped off by parents and family members to start their two-year service.

Untypical were two changes to past arrival-day protocol — drive-through drop-offs and no signature missionary handshakes.

Both changes are due in part to prevent the spread of swine flu at the MTC, where three missionaries were diagnosed recently with the H1N1 virus, and another 17 tested positive as potential cases.

Prior to Wednesday, missionaries and family members traditionally were welcomed in large group meetings, with brief information shared before the inevitable, emotional parting — missionaries leaving to continue their orientation elsewhere at the center and family members excused to exit the MTC.

The new curbside check-in was to begin later this summer, but the swine-flu situation hastened the change, said LDS Church missionary department leaders. Now, several thousand outside guests will no longer pass through MTC hallways each Wednesday.

Also as a flu precaution, MTC personnel, volunteers and missionaries were counseled to avoid greeting those arriving with a handshake or hug.

Joseph F. Boone, who served as Provo MTC president from 2007 to earlier this year, said the previous arrival gathering served as a good send-off — "a healthy one in many ways" — as new missionaries and families joined to sing the hymn "Called to Serve" and receive a message from MTC leaders.

"We let the families know how much they were appreciated and how their missionaries would be supported there," said Boone, who with his wife had taken each of their nine children to the Provo MTC previously for their own missions. "If you get people singing together, praying together and laughing together, it makes (the transition) a little easier."

The new process — likely to be tweaked after Wednesday's initial effort — allows one car per missionary to enter the MTC's main lot, with the Lorenzo Snow Building's south entrance looking like an airport terminal drop-off zone.

Cars line up, luggage is unloaded, missionaries are greeted by volunteers before saying goodbye to their family and moving onto MTC grounds — and families drive through an exit and some BYU lots before returning to residential Provo.

For an average springtime Wednesday, that's trying to accommodate some 500 missionaries and vehicles, all in a two-hour period.