I am a convert to the Church from a very poor family. I served as a missionary. Upon my return, the Perpetual Education Fund helped me to pay for a technical course in computerized accounting. From that time, my employment choices changed 100 percent. Before that, the jobs I had were always as a helper, carrying things, for example: duty-free operator, tailor shop, lathe operator, house painter. But even before finishing my studies, I already had a better job as a data input production worker, administrative assistant and replacement parts warehouse man and now I am a manager at a super warehouse.
The best thing about all this is that my income has increased some 400 percent in the last two years and I was able to practically pay off my debt to the Perpetual Education Fund in three payments. I am really one of those who have been very blessed by the Lord because the fund has been put to work for us, those with the most limited resources.
Even though I work a lot of hours each day, I have time for my family and the Church. I have served as president of a branch in one of the British Virgin Islands where I am now working, and now serve as the second counselor in the stake presidency. I know that if we want great blessings in our lives, we have to rise to the levels of those blessings and that is achieved through studying and being responsible in the companies where we work. I am happy with my work and I like what I do.
What more can I say? Christ lives and has carried out His work in me and in my family and in the lives of those I have been able to help. I love my wife. She is my best friend and now I can give her a better future at my side, just as I promised her when we were sealed in the temple.
My most sincere desire is that those who use the fund may pay it back as agreed so that others receive the same opportunities. I know that God lives. For those who will prepare themselves in things spiritual as well as educational, the Lord will bless them with the abundance of the earth.
— José M. Miguel Bueno, Arroyo Hondo Ward, Santiago Dominican Republic South Stake
