What you Should Know about the First Twelve Weeks of a Mission -
One of the fairly recent additions to missionary work across the world is the program entitled "The First 12 Weeks for New Missionaries and their Trainers". It came about after the age limit was lowered to 18 years old for men of the Church and 19 years old for the women.
As the MTC's (Missionary Training Centers) across the world were reaching their capacity for receiving new missionaries, the time a new missionary spent in training in these facilities was decreased tremendously. In most instances, new missionaries learning a foreign language now spend no more than 6 weeks in the MTC. Those not learning a new language usually have a 10 day length of stay.
These circumstances lend great importance to the first 12 weeks a missionary spends in their assigned mission with a new trainer. It's important that those first 12 weeks be the most productive and beneficial that they possibly can.
I personally have a great testimony of this program. While is was developed for training new missionaries, this is a program that benefits each missionary in the field continuously.
Live by the Whisperings of the Spirit . . .
One of the greatest roles of a trainer for a new missionary is to help their new companion seek for and heed the promptings of the Spirit. This begins in the MTC training and is carried forward right into the mission field.
