Nicole

Most of the work we do is office-related and we don´t get a lot of direct contact with the participants of the Perpetual Education Fund.  However, Jane sends birthday greetings to all the participants and from time to time we have assignments to email the participants.  We love getting responses from the kids.  They are always expressing their appreciation for the PEF and frequently bear testimony as to how it has helped their lives.  Many have problems and we work with them and with the other PEF staff to get them the help they need.    We get a lot of email responses that start with “let me explain the situation”.  When we do, we know they need help. 

Blaine was asked to follow up on several participants who had no ward or stake listed and who seemed to have disappeared.  They did have an old email address so emails were sent out to all of them.   Soon a response came back that started:  Let me explain my situation…”  It was from a sister who had been having some very difficult challenges in her life and was ready to quit church and her studies.  She had only been a member 5 years.  She had tried to get a PEF loan for the last part of her studies but her Bishop wouldn´t approve it because she hadn´t been coming to church.  She felt like everything had come crashing down on her, even though she had been helping a family who had lost their mother and her father who had been hospitalized and wasn’t expected to live in addition to her studies.  I wrote back to her trying to strengthen and encourage her and let her know that her Father in Heaven knew her situation and would help her get through these difficult times.  She was encouraged enough to try to talk to her bishop again (in the meantime we were working to get in touch with the Bishop and to fill him in on her situation).  She went to church during a Young Womens activity and there she was approached by the first counselor.  Usually he greeted her and then went on with his business but this time he stopped and spent some time with her asking her about her studies and her father.  He helped her get in to the Bishop and she was able to have her burden lifted by those priesthood leaders.  Then she expressed her extreme gratitude for my follow-up and encouragement and expressed how she had lost all hope until she had received my email.  

It is amazing how the Lord works.  He knows when each of his children is having difficulties and places different individuals in their path to help lift and sustain them.  How important it is for us to be sensitive to the Spirit and to be ready when He calls.  This experience was a wonderful blessing in our lives.  It was topped off when she came into the office to pick up her check for the school.  We were called down to the PEF Service Center where she was waiting for us.  She was so excited and happy to meet us.  She wanted to give me a big hug but knew she couldn´t so she gave Jane two hugs and said one was for me.  So, Jane turned and gave me a big hug for her.  She was so overjoyed to see us.  It was a wonderful but humbling experience.