The "Real" Elder Price, Part 1: The Missionary Training Center

When the Broadway audience first sees Elder Price, he is in the Missionary Training Center (MTC), and soon meets his socially inept companion, Elder Cunningham. These two, with the "Mormon Boys" (various other missionaries), practice a door approach with repetitions of the enthusiastically sung "Hello." The music is fun and catchy. The MTC experience portrayed on stage is, however, nothing like the real thing.

Elder Price at MTC

My husband and I spent two years in an MTC branch—where we met the real Elder Price and various "Mormon boys" on the first day of their missions.

I wrote this about our experience on May 22, 2008:

Yesterday evening, Bruce and I welcomed twenty-one missionaries into our branch at the MTC.

Several of the missionaries come from blended families, where death or divorce has ruptured expectations. At least one young man delayed his mission for a year until he could work through the issues his mother's death had introduced. One missionary was from Scotland. When I shook his hand, I noted his plaid tie. "It's not my tartan, but it's a good one," he said in a thick accent.

I answered, "You're from Scotland, aren't you. Either that or you've mastered the accent."

"I'm from Scotland."

"Well, you have a very good accent."

"Thank you very much," he said. "I've been working on it for eighteen years."

Most of these new missionaries have sung "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" since they were old enough to carry a tune. But there are exceptions—some who had not considered a mission until recently. One, a musician, gave up an orchestra tour which included Carnegie Hall so he could serve. Another was in a rock band and had the opportunity to do a European tour. He had to choose between that tour and a mission. He sold his guitars. His mission was financed by the money those guitars brought in. One—Elder Jared Wigginton—already had a college degree focusing on international relations, and even taught for a year. He was admitted to law school, and chose to defer his admission for two years. He will be going to Africa. I am eager to see how this mission prepares him for the rest of what he'll do in his life. He will learn about Africa in a way no class on international law will ever teach him.

Elder Brandon Price would enter the MTC four months after Elder Wigginton.

Brandon had submitted his mission papers a few weeks before his "call" came in a large white envelope. (No, mission calls do not happen in "the Center" as The Book of Mormon Musical depicts.) Brandon sat on the couch with a knife and the envelope.

"Okay, any last minute guesses?" he said, already sawing the envelope open.

"Some place European! Tennessee! Canada! Guatemala!" his family shouted.

The envelope was opened, and he lifted the papers out. He stared at the top one.

"Read it out loud!" his mother coached.

"Wow," was his response. He had already seen it. "Dear Elder Price," he read, "you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," his mother breathed.

"You are called to labor in the D.R. Congo-Kinshasa mission."

A gasp and a chorus of "What?" interrupted him.

"You're going to Af-reek-ah!" his father yelled.

"I'm going to the Congo!" He continued reading: "You will preach the gospel in the French language."

"Are you joking?" his mother asked.

"No!" He stared at the call. "I never heard of anyone going there." He read further: "It is expected that you will labor for a period of twenty-four months." As his sister tried to find the Congo on a world globe, Brandon Price repeated, "Wow. Wow."

"Wow," his mother echoed.

(Other Africa-bound missionaries had different responses from their families. One had a grandmother who started crying, "You're going to die!")

Elder Price with map

On Wednesday evening, September 24, 2008, my husband and I met Elder Price. He was wearing a new suit, new shoes, and a new missionary badge with a little red dot, identifying him as just-arrived. During orientation, the "just-arrived" removed those dots, and the branch president introduced them to their texts: the scriptures and Preach My Gospel, which gives instructions on how to teach, but more importantly on how to develop Christ-like attributes.