OREM, Utah — When Kaleb Jones was returning home to Lehi, Utah, after his full-time mission in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission, his mission president told him to do two things: “Make sure you are going to institute and going to the temple.”
Jones heeded the counsel. “It really helped me adjust back,” he said.
Now a student at the Utah Valley Institute of Religion adjacent to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Jones doesn’t just attend institute classes and functions — he also invites friends and others on the college campus. And the effort has rippled or snowballed into upwards of 40 or so other young adults who also come.
“I think it’s the easiest thing ever, honestly,” Jones said. “It’s such an easy invite. Like, ‘That building down there, I’m going there after class, you should come with me.’ And then they show up, and then they start inviting their friends, and then more friends and more friends, and then you keep meeting new people, and then it’s like faithful networking almost.”
The others discover what Jones already knows — institute is amazing, he said. The classes help grow his testimony and knowledge of the gospel, while the events and functions are “probably the greatest part of socializing in college.”
This year, the Institutes of Religion program is celebrating its 100th anniversary. From its beginnings with 25 students meeting near a college campus in Moscow, Idaho, institute now has more than 2,700 locations in more than 170 countries in 39 languages.
President Dallin H. Oaks called institute “one of the greatest opportunities to learn, gather and lift others.” At the beginning of this 100th year, he invited young adults “to consistently attend institute.”
In the spring of 2025, Seminaries and Institutes of Religion — in collaboration with the Missionary Department — began an “Invite a Friend” initiative, encouraging students to invite others to attend class with them. The initiative highlights simple or normal and natural ways for youth and young adults to extend those invitations, and it has seen incredible results.
In August 2026, the Church reported worldwide enrollment in the seminary and institute programs exceeded 1,090,000, including more than 85,000 friends of other faiths.
Many of those friends then become baptized members of the Church. In an interview about this enrollment growth, Brother Chad H Webb, then the administrator for Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, said about one in every three who enroll in a seminary or institute class will eventually be baptized.
During a Church News podcast earlier this year, Yaw Danso, associate administrator of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, spoke of an institute in Brazzaville, Congo, with about 3,000 students coming every week.
“More than half of them are friends of the Church,” said Danso, “and they come to institute, they feel the Spirit, they learn about Jesus Christ, and they continue coming. So it’s just been an incredible thing to see peers inviting peers, and they come.”
Inviting someone to an activity or meal at the building is probably the easiest thing to do, Jones said, but he doesn’t hesitate to invite others to take an institute class either. For example, Jones met another student once in his college math class. The student had a lot of questions about the Church, so Jones and a fellow returned missionary in the class invited him to institute.
“And he came, and it was super awesome,” Jones said. That student then invited his roommate who was a member of the Church who also then started attending institute. An invite to the Lindon Utah Temple open house followed and was accepted.
“It was just cool to see that progression, to see him grow and get closer to God,” Jones said.
A video shared with the Church News which is being used in various Utah Area meetings begins with Jones in front of the Utah Valley Institute of Religion and then shows many other young adults joining him. They speak about how Jones invited them and share the impact — making friends, having a sense of belonging, growing closer to Jesus Christ, understanding God’s plan of salvation, maintaining an eternal perspective and feeling peace.
While Jones has been recognized by the Utah Valley Institute of Religion and in the Utah Area for the results of his efforts to invite friends, he gives all the credit to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ — because he knows it is Their work that he is a part of and it is the Spirit’s influence on each person who comes to institute.
“That just brings me so much joy to gather Israel by bringing them to come and to see them have joy and learn,” Jones said.
