After closing a third of its 15 missionary training centers in 2019 and 2020, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced another closure — the Colombia MTC in Bogotá, Colombia, effective January 2023.
The announcement was made Friday, Sept. 16, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Missionaries who would have attended the Colombia MTC will now train at one of the Church’s other nine MTCs that continue to operate across the globe. Technology — refined as missionary training was done remotely at home during the COVID-19 pandemic — helps allow Church leaders the best use of resources in training new missionaries.
With the closure in Colombia, the nine remaining MTCs will be:
- Brazil Missionary Training Center in São Paulo, Brazil
- England Missionary Training Center in Preston, England
- Ghana Missionary Training Center in Accra, Ghana
- Mexico Missionary Training Center in Mexico City, Mexico
- New Zealand Missionary Training Center in Auckland, New Zealand
- Peru Missionary Training Center in Lima, Peru
- Philippines Missionary Training Center in Manila, Philippines
- South Africa Missionary Training Center in Johannesburg, South Africa
- Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah
In 2019, the Church closed its MTCs in Madrid, Spain; Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. A fifth, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, closed early in 2020, just prior to the pandemic.
With the earlier closures, Church and missionary leaders pointed to the capacity of the Church’s larger MTCs — specifically the Mexico, Brazil and Philippines MTCs along with the Provo MTC — which in 2019 were hosting 75% of the Church’s training missionaries.
