Adult Scripture Classes vs BYU Scripture Classes.

[ctr2961]

Just curious.  When taking a local scripture class(to learn the chapters in the BOM), I hear a lot of people spiritual experiences(war stories) and then they ask me my experiences( I go blank). This takes time from studying the BOM, so we don't cover all the chapters and skip alot of the chapters which I want  to understand.  There seems to be more summarizing then detailed chapter information.

In Institute and Seminary, I hear there is more structure classes(less experience, more detail studying).

It feels like explaining the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in one paragraph.

Is this normal?  The teachers are great, and don't want to be rude in class by asking several basic questions, but I feel that I am missing lot. 

 

 

 

 

[Vort]

Ask the basic questions, for several reasons:

1. They are honest questions that you deserve to have answered. Don't be ashamed of honest questions.

2. Many others might be sitting quietly, wondering the same thing, but too embarrassed to confess their ignorance. Be their hero.

3. Even those who know the answer, or think they do—even those who might be impatient at such a question—do well to review the basics, and often learn new things in the process.

Ask those questions, ctr2961.

[Jane_Doe]

If you want to attend a Institute class, you're certainly welcome to.  

A big picture thing to remember though: classes (any class) are never suppose to be the mainstay of your spiritual development or to replace your individual study.  You can (and should) study each chapter in depth as the Spirit leads you during your personal study.

[zil]

Another book series that you might find useful is the Verse by Verse books - they have them for all the volumes of scripture - usually 2 books per volume.  Here's the Deseret Book page:

https://deseretbook.com/p/verse-book-mormon-volume-1-first-nephi-alma-29-d-kelly-ogden-79721?ref=Grid | Search-11&variant_id=18824-hardcover

...but search Amazon too, as they sometimes have better prices.

I haven't used the Book of Mormon ones, but as far as I can tell, they mean it literally - they go verse by verse.  If you're looking for detail, these may be the ticket.

[zil]

1 minute ago, zil said:

Verse by Verse books

These are written by the same BYU professors who do the BYU religion class videos found here:

https://www.byutv.org/programaz?listid=f501cc9f-1e17-4d6b-a418-037e6e474722&layout=grid

Book of Mormon class here:

https://www.byutv.org/show/06254a9a-bcd9-4fe5-b0cb-5193905e7d8b/discussions-on-the-book-of-mormon

...so you could watch the class to see if you like their style, or use the class and the institute manual and/or the Verse by Verse book together, or any other subset or combination.

[ctr2961]

29 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

If you want to attend a Institute class, you're certainly welcome to.  

A big picture thing to remember though: classes (any class) are never suppose to be the mainstay of your spiritual development or to replace your individual study.  You can (and should) study each chapter in depth as the Spirit leads you during your personal study.

I actually asked to attend the institute classes again and was directed by the stake again that it is only for YSA.    They want me to attend the Adult Study classes because it is my age.

I never took institute or Seminary classes(convert) so my type of personal study is very similar to college study.  So I am just curious if it is normal to talk more about people person experiences(testimonies), than about what in the scriptures.  I thought the adult study classes is to focus on the scriptures and the Sunday school classes are for more experiences.   We only have an hour and the testimonies takes up about 40 or 50 minutes of the time. 

example last week we were supposed to go over 8 chapters and we only cover 2 and everyone was leaving before I got to ask questions about the other 6 chapters.

I just saw all the new links to scripture study, thanks for posting them.

[zil]

Just now, ctr2961 said:

So I am just curious if it is normal to talk more about people person experiences(testimonies), than about what in the scriptures.

Probably so.  They're probably operating on two assumptions: (1) everyone's had seminary, institute, and Sunday School their whole lives and are bored to death of what they actually say (IMO, this is an attitude that is fairly common and is a failing rather than a reflection of their familiarity with the subject); (2) that personal experience, testimony, and how to put the teachings to use in our lives is more productive / useful / helpful than simply discussing what the scriptures say.  I can't argue against #2, except that if you're not really familiar with what the scriptures say, #2 can be a challenge.