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.
Missionaries wanting photos or interactions with larger family gatherings are directed to a lot and property east of the MTC, across 900 East. Photo opportunities at the MTC entrance signs now are at an even higher premium.
But luggage can't be unloaded outside the MTC campus proper and walked in by hand — the missionary and luggage must arrive by car and check in via the curbside process.
Families dropping off new missionaries Wednesday said they missed the traditional send-offs but were understanding.
"It's one of those things — when the brethren have something to do, there's a reason," said Scott Hansen of Bakersfield, Calif., joining family members in dropping off his son, Elder Brent Hansen, assigned to the Italy Catania Mission.
Two older Hansen brothers who served missions previously had differing first days — the Hansens said goodbye to Eric Hansen at the airport because he went directly to the S? Paulo Brazil MTC, and they accompanied the Argentina-bound David Hansen to the Provo MTC for the traditional goodbye.
"All three are different experiences, all three are wonderful," said their mother, Joyce Hansen.
Elder Anthony Dibb of Bountiful, called to the Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk Mission, is the fourth missionary from Bruce and Colleen Dibb's family, with the previous three having gone through the Provo MTC.
"We sort of created our own experience outside the MTC," said Colleen Dibb of the family's mini devotional Wednesday — including talks and hymns — conducted between the MTC and the nearby Provo Temple for the 15 accompanying family members.
And after dropping off Anthony Dibbcurbside, the family continued one of its arrival-day traditions, Colleen Dibb said — "we all went to lunch together, to commiserate."
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