SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will close two of its foreign missionary training centers in the coming year.

Daniel Woodruff, a spokesman for the LDS Church, announced the church would close down MTC facilities in Santiago, Chile, and Madrid, Spain, beginning in January 2019. "The MTCs are part of church property that is already used for other functions such as temple patron housing," Woodruff said in an email to the Deseret News. "Plans for how to use the specific MTC space are yet to be determined."

The space in these church-owned facilities could be used for other functions, such as temple patron housing, but is yet to be determined.

"This decision comes as Church leaders continue to seek the best use of resources worldwide according to the needs and demands of each area," Woodruff said in a news release.

Once the facilities close down, missionaries will be sent to one of 13 other missionary training centers around the globe.

The news comes less than a year after the church expanded the Provo MTC and upgraded missionary training centers in Ghana and the Philippines.

The missionary training center in Santiago, Chile, was established in 1981, according to the Deseret News, and served native Spanish-speaking missionaries.

The MTC in Madrid, Spain, was founded in 1999 next to the Madrid Temple. Missionaries there have been trained in Spanish, Portuguese, English, Russian, Italian and French.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how the MTC facilities would be used in the future. Plans for the church-owned space is yet to be determined.