Seeing the Prophet's Vision at Work

When we started our mission, we knew very little about the Perpetual Education Fund (PEF). We had a day of training in Salt Lake while at the MTC. We thought PEF was just a loan program; it is so much more. It is designed to create opportunities to upgrade employment, and therefore standard of living, in countries with very few opportunities. Elder Carmack, of the Seventy, participated in our training; he was charged with the responsibility to implement President Hinckley’s vision and ideas; he talked about how President Hinckley often would tell him, “That’s not how I saw it,” when particulars of the program were presented to him. The “loan” is only available under very strict and limited circumstances. The Church views the funds as sacred, and they are only available to those who seriously want to use the funds to better their circumstances and are dedicated to repaying the loan. The repayment statistics are amazing when compared to traditional student loan programs and considering the absence of any repayment enforcement mechanism. PEF must be used only for education that occurs in the person’s local area; the idea is to provide education and employment to those who will build the Church locally.

There are incredible stories worldwide about PEF; one occurred recently here in Samoa. A woman from Lalomanu, a village on the south side of the island of Upolu, had been trying to repay her loan when the tsunami destroyed her home and killed her two children. The PEF committee here was in the process of recommending to the Area Presidency that repayment of her loan be waived when she came in and paid off her entire loan ($392, a lot of money here, especially for someone in her circumstances). The PEF loan recipients are supposed to view their obligation to repay as sacred, and she obviously did. We are thrilled to be able to help in some small way administering the PEF here; we look forward to seeing wonderful things happen for some of the young people we have gotten to know who are trying hard to lift themselves to greater things.