To my current employer

I work right now at the MTC in Provo and have worked there for a little over 2 years. Right now we are undergoing the biggest missionary curriculum change since the discussions were done away with late in 2001. This change is coming about because of lack of teaching skills displayed by the missionaries in the field at this time. It is being spearheaded by the bretheren, however there is some misalignment in the 7 S's model for the MTC in implementing this strategy.

The main goal is to better train missionaries to teach by the Spirit in order to invite others to come unto Christ. The bretheren have identified 8 "Preach My Gospel Fundamentals" that we are to focus on in teaching the missionaries. We teach these fundamentals in the missionaries' native language and mission language later in their MTC stay and have them practice teaching skills. As far as the structure, system, staff, shared values, and skills go, the MTC and all of the teachers seem to be pretty well aligned. We all want the missionaries to be more successful and become more skillful and powerful servants of the Lord. However, in strategy and style there seems to be big misalignment.

Currently I am the tutor for the language I teach, so I don't work with a district directly. I am required to attend 2 different training meetings each led by a different training coordinator. In my tutor training meetings we are taught that in helping the missionaries teach with the Spirit in their mission language, they need to stop worrying about what they are saying and how they are saying it and focus on the Spirit and what the Spirit wants them to say and what the investigator needs to hear. After they do that, the gift of tongues will be given for that missionary and investigator. In my teacher training meetings we're learning the opposite, however. We are taught that as missionaries practice teaching in the mission language they should be focusing on saying everything they want to say correctly. However, depending on the training coordinator leading that teacher training, they also emphasize focusing on the Spirit.

As a result of the misalignment of strategy (different steps leading to the same end result) and style (differing opinions on how to achieve the goal from management) teachers (especially those who are or have served as tutors) are confused on how to best help the missionaries gain the skills they need and teach with the Spirit. I have talked to many of the more tenured teachers and they all agree that they are already sick of this new curriculum and that it is being implemented poorly, causing confusion and frustration for the teachers. Because of this confusion and frustration we as teachers are reverting to whatever we have done in the past and the change is being opposed. We all agree that change needs to happen, we just don't think it can happen like this.

I have talked to a few people and I have an opinion on how to resolve all of this. Granted, I do not have the proper authority to receive the revelation (and I should probably just humble myself and sustain for now, but I haven't been called as a teacher so maybe I'm okay in my rebellious thoughts) but I think it would help solve a lot of problems:

Currently each district in the MTC has 2 teachers to teach them both teaching skills and language principles. there are 3 4-hour blocks in the day for missionaries. 2 of those blocks are used in instruction while the other block is for missionary study. Missionary study is needed and so is instruction, but in my opinion if the missionaries in the field are struggling with teaching, we need to get them to teach more here in the MTC. My idea is to take one of the teachers from every district and turn them into "Progressing Investigators" so that each district every day has 4 hours of instruction, 4 hours of study, and 4 hours of practice teaching. Missionaries can sign up to teach certain teachers as those teachers act as investigators finding the gospel who will have real concerns and pitfalls, just like an investigator would in the field. INstruction hours will focus on the necessary teaching skills and also language. This will help the missionaries rely on the Spirit more in their teaching while getting real-life (or as close to it as possible) practice with the teaching skills in their native language and their mission language when they're ready. Training coordinators will focus their trainings for the "progressing investigators" on how to help the missionary know when they are following the Spirit in teaching while teaching the instructor teachers how to help them gain the language skills and teaching skills in the classroom, and apply them to their progressing investigators.

I've put a lot of thought into this. I think it would solve a lot of frustration from the missionaries, teachers, training coordinators, and even the bretheren. But again, I don't claim to know more than the Bretheren, I just don't know if they've even thought of this possibility yet and I know they don't see the frustration and misalignment of the lowest-level workers: the teachers.