Stories: Abandon MTC!
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| November 15, 1998
Though the MTC can be profoundly spiritual, most will agree that it is rarely exciting. Upon entering the training center, missionaries find themselves upon a meticulously detailed schedule. Within days, they have adapted themselves to the monotonous routine. I can say that my district and I had ourselves a rare occasion to differ from this routine.
On the early Sunday morning, our entire district was asleep in our bunks. The only lights within our room came from the numerous alarm clocks: that read app. 1:30 a.m. Without warning and quite suddenly, the fire alarm began to sound throughout the entire building. Immediately, five of the six sleeping elders awoke to the sound of danger.
I was the elder who kept sleeping. I am partially deaf, and I am required to wear hearing aids. Each night, I remove my hearing aids before bed, making it nearly impossible for me to hear. Therefore, I could not hear the loud sirens penetrating though the walls, warning their occupants that there was a fire.
The five elders quickly forced themselves awake. They jumped out of beds and began to dress fast. There was the faint scent of acrid smoke in the air. Perhaps it was then that they noticed Elder Sevigny soundly asleep in his top bunk. Hey! Theres a fire! they yelled, Wake up!! Wake up!! Hey! FIRE!!!
They continued shouting. I just continued sleeping soundly with their shouts going unheard. My wise companion, Elder Derrick Tate saw the others shouting for me to wake up. He thought: You idiots! He is deaf! And proceeded to correctly wake me up by shaking me.
I slowly awoke. The room was dark but I could see several elders standing beside me mouthing largely but soundlessly. They were faces seemed wide and they waved their arms about insanely. I was drowsy but I concentrated to read what they were trying to say. It took but a moment to hit me: Did you say theres a fire?
YES! THERES A FIRE!!!
I immediately jumped out of bed and began to dress. We then began to make our escape. The outside hallways was barraged with flashing strobes and sirens. Running down the strobing hallways felt surreal and dramatic: I likened the experience to escaping the TITANIC. I neared the exit doors, when I noticed the automated firewalls began to close. I feared that once fully closed, we would be trapped within the building.
The fire doors are closing! RUN!!! (I was unaware that once these walls closed, they could easily be opened as doors. These walls served more as fire barriers rather than walls.)
We made ourselves outside to the safety of the lawn. Hundred of elders stood in pajamas, shivering in the cold November morning. We stood looking up at our dormitory, gazing for the fiery inferno. Yet as we stared, there was no fire to be found.
Sirens could be heard and the distance, and soon the fire-trucks and ambulances appeared. All of us were ushered into the gym, where we sang hymns, and slept in our chairs. About an hour later, we were allowed back into our building, and we crashed in our beds: exhausted from the ordeal.
It was later that morning that we learned: an elder, hungry during the night, decided to cook some microwavable popcorn. Having forgot what he started, the popcorn caught fire which activated the fire alarms. |
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