What to Bring to the MTC

The short answer: bring your travel documents, your medication, your proselyting clothing, toiletries, exercise clothing, a watch and something to write in — and pack the rest of your mission luggage separately so it can stay closed while you are in training.

That covers almost everyone. What follows is the detail worth knowing before arrival day, and the handful of things that genuinely vary.

Your instructions decide, not this page

Missionary training centres are not identical, and neither are the instructions issued with a call. What your training centre provides, what it asks you to leave at home, and what your mission expects you to arrive with are all specified for you rather than generally.

What you need on arrival day

Arrival is a short, busy sequence: you are dropped off or you arrive from the airport, you are met, you are shown where you are living, and you are into the schedule quickly. The things you want within reach are few.

• Your reporting instructions, printed as well as on a screen.
• Passport, visa documents and travel itinerary.
• Medication, in labelled packaging.
• Glasses or lenses, and a spare.
• Your wallet, and a little cash.
• A pen.

Everything else can be in a suitcase. Arriving with a heavy shoulder bag you have to carry around for the first two hours is the most common small mistake.

Clothing

Travel in proselyting clothing unless your instructions say otherwise, and bring about a week of it — you will be washing weekly, so a week plus a margin is the right quantity regardless of how long your training lasts.

Training centres are one of the settings where fuller dress expectations apply. For elders that means a white shirt and tie with dress slacks, and a suit jacket where it is required. For sisters, skirts or dresses are expected at MTC devotionals, with dress slacks available for ordinary days.

Add two or three sets of exercise clothing, casual clothing for preparation day, sleepwear suitable for a shared residence, and two pairs of shoes you have already worn in.

Documents and money

Keep the whole set in one place in your carry-on: passport, visa paperwork, itinerary, reporting instructions, immunisation record, insurance details and copies of any prescription. Leave duplicates with your family before you travel.

You need very little money at a training centre, but you do need some — for laundry, for small replacements, and for the first preparation day. A working bank card plus a small amount of cash is the right amount of preparation.

Personal items

Toiletries for a few weeks rather than for two years, a washbag that hangs on a hook, shower sandals for shared bathrooms, a quick-drying towel, and a basic supply of plasters and blister treatment. New shoes and long days on your feet make that last one less optional than it sounds.

Two small items are named by almost every returned missionary and appear on no official list: a watch, because the schedule is tight and phone use is limited, and earplugs, because you are sharing a room in an unfamiliar building.

Training-related items

Most materials are provided or available digitally, and your instructions state what you are expected to bring. In practice the things used every single day are:

• A study journal, and pens you actually like writing with.
• One set of scriptures, if you want a physical set — one, not several.
• A small folder, because handouts start accumulating on day one.
• Index cards or a pocket notebook, if you are learning a language.

Books beyond that are the heaviest thing per unit of use in any missionary’s luggage.

What should stay accessible

Storage is limited, so pack so that one suitcase covers training and the other stays shut. Reachable: a week of clothing, toiletries, exercise kit, study materials, laundry supplies. Closed: the coat for a climate you have not arrived in, bulk toiletries, spare shirts, anything mission-specific.

The mechanics of that split — which bag, in what order, and how to weigh it — are covered in the MTC packing list.

What varies by training centre

Do not assume any of the following from someone else’s experience, including a sibling’s. All of it is answered in your own instructions:

• What bedding, towels and laundry facilities are provided.
• How long you will be in training.
• What technology you may bring, and how it may be used.
• Whether particular clothing variations apply to your mission.
• The climate where your training centre is, which is often nothing like the climate of your mission.

Common mistakes

• Arriving with new shoes. Long days on unfamiliar floors in shoes bought last week is the single most reliable way to spend week one limping.
• Packing two years of toiletries into the first bag. Heavy, bulky, and in the way for the whole stay.
• Bringing a library.
• Buying temple clothing. The temple provides it to missionaries at no cost. It does not belong in a suitcase.
• Leaving addresses in a phone. Write down the ones you want to use in the first fortnight.
• Putting sharp items in the carry-on. Nail clippers and razors go in checked luggage.

If you have not yet done the wider packing, start with the full LDS missionary packing list — the MTC portion is a subset of it rather than a separate exercise.