Institute in Ghana

On Thursday night Kirsten and I had the pleasure of attending institute in the building where we will be teaching each day.  When we walked into the room I was in shock to see 20 boys and only 3 girls.  I'm not sure exactly why this is but it was amazing.  As we sang The Spirit of God as our opening hymn I was overwhelmed by the strength of the priesthood all singing this song together.

I wish that I could have taken a short video so that all of you could experience the excitement that the YSA's here have for the Gospel.  Besides, the teacher directing the group to several passages in the Book of Mormon and asking a few questions, all of the discussion was done by the students.  They weren't just answering the questions of the teacher; they were asking their own questions so that they could understand on a deeper level.  

Right now here in Ghana they are running a pilot program with BYU-Idaho where the students do some of their institute work online and then get credit for attending classes.  I'm not sure exactly how it work but prior to the class getting started the Tema Stake President (also the Area Welfare Manager) was there to help the students to understand the expectations being put upon them as they participate in this program.  He was talking about the principle of faith and he said, "Faith is thinking as Heavenly Father thinks."  I'd never thought of it in that sense before but it really is.  We often speak of the triad of faith, hope, and charity and how those three traits work together.  I think that faith is thinking is He think, hope is seeing as he sees, and charity is feeling as He feels.  When all of these are combined it leads to action, where in we are obedient to the His will.  I know that we can all receive this transformation as we, "Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with his love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ."