Institute Classes--Week 1

This week we started our 2 classes at the LDS Institute of Religion: Highlights of the Book of Mormon and Highlights of the Pearl of Great Price. Both classes are relatively small (about 12-15 students including us...so we're about half of the class) but we have been welcomed warmly. One funny moment from class was that on the first day of our Pof GP class, I volunteered to "direct" the hymn (I figured that was less embarresing than playing the piano), but then the student picking the hymn chose our least favorite: "Praise to the Man" (a song about Joseph Smith). So far, this has been the only hymn I have not been willing to sing along to. So, I sort of mumbled my way through, pretending I was unable to sing and direct at the same time. But, Brad said he had to keep from busting up laughing at the irony of the situation.

Anyway, my favorite class so far was our second P of GP class, which was dedicated to tips for Scripture study. Almost all of the points on our handout I agreed with and have practiced in the past. If I had been teaching, I might have emphasized context a tad more, but overall I found it accurate and helpful. This professor is really open to us participating in class, so Brad shared the opening Scripture (he used Col. 1: 9-14) before the prayer, and later shared a website he uses for more accurate study of word meanings: studylight.org, which is basically an interlinear Greek/English text. When we were talking about looking into symbols I mentioned how I have found it helpful to study the meaning of symbols from the Old Testament that show up again in the New Testament.

We've also had some very good discussions in between our 2 classes (we have an hour and a half lunch break) in which we talked with professors and several students (one whom we met last year and works there in the Institute--she's very easy to talk with and has become a friend to us). Monday we talked about the persecuted Christian church and our different mission trip experiences around the world. Wednesday one of our professors asked us "What bugs you about Mormons?" and asked each of us to share. Isn't it neat that we've built up a trust to the extent that someone LDS would be willing to ask such a vulnerable question? This also lauched us into a discussion about their view of becoming a god, and also how it would be good to talk about what doctrines we both see as "essential" for eternal life. This may continue in the coming weeks...but is a very difficult topic to nail down, even between Evangelical Christians. Pray for these converstaions.