OREM, Utah -- LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley called Elder John K. Carmack on the phone about a "bold new initiative." It was February 2001, and Elder Carmack of the Quorum of the Seventy was serving as president of the Europe Central Area in Frankfurt, Germany.

"We've got great missionaries from all these countries, especially Latin America, who serve their missions and then go back to poverty," Elder Carmack remembered President Hinckley saying. "We're going to do something about it."

Elder Carmack was about to play a role in what he called a new era of church history.

A few months after the phone call, President Hinckley announced the formation of the Perpetual Education Fund, a loan program to help members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints get an education in less-advantaged countries around the world. Elder Carmack was made an emeritus general authority of the church and became the fund's managing director.

Elder Carmack spoke about the fund on Friday, Nov. 6, at the 10th annual Mormon Studies Conference at Utah Valley University. The conference theme this year was "Outmigration and the Mormon Quest for Education."

According to Elder Carmack, the Perpetual Education Fund or PEF is an outgrowth of the current phase of Mormon Church history.

The first phase of LDS history was the "restoration" or "revelatory" phase. Joseph Smith received revelations, translated scriptures and established the church.

The second phase was the "emigration and colonization" phase. "It was a time when we sought a place of safety where the church could escape its persecutors, a place where they could grow and develop without having to fight for their lives," Elder Carmack said. "The key to that phase, of bringing all of those people, ... was the Perpetual Emigration Fund."

The Perpetual Emigration Fund, which made loans to Mormons around the world, helped them come to Utah. The current Perpetual Education Fund was modeled after this second-phase program.

The third phase was the "expansion phase." This involved Mormons leaving Utah and moving to other areas of the country -- the "outmigration" that the Mormon Studies Conference was examining.

Up to the 20th century, the church was centered in the Intermountain West. "At that time they didn't know if the church could even exist and prosper unless they were a majority in a small community," Elder Carmack said.

The success of Mormons in parts of California proved that it was possible for the church to flourish. The first stake in an urban area outside of the Mormon corridor was established in the Los Angeles area in 1923. Many more stakes in more areas quickly followed as President Heber J. Grant gave his approval.

"Yes! The answer was yes. You could thrive in an urban setting," Elder Carmack said.

The current phase of church history, according to Elder Carmack, is "global reach." Today, about 6 million Mormons live in the U.S. and Canada, about 7 million around the world. Elder Carmack said that in the future that ratio may be a membership of 20 million in the U.S. and Canada and 80 million worldwide.

The global growth presented problems, however. Many returned missionaries were coming home from successful missions, but couldn't find work. The church also needed confident and skilled local leaders to run wards and branches.

The PEF is helping to meet these needs and prepare members to not only be successful in their careers, but also provide a financial base that can support the church in their areas and provide the skilled leadership needed to carry out the church programs around the world.

The fund started out in a few countries and then expanded to include, by the end of this year, about 41,000 participants in 42 countries. The average cost per participant each year is about $1,250. Forty-nine percent of participants are male, 51 percent female.

Some areas were easier to establish the program than others. In one country, for example, there was a feeling that the church was rich and that members should not have to pay it back. "People ask ... why can't you just give this money?" Elder Carmack said. "But the idea is to build people and have them become as self-reliant and self-sufficient as possible. And so we ask them to repay the loans."

Not everybody pays, however. About one-third are slow in repaying. "We knew that that would happen," Elder Carmack said. Recent participants, in the last year or so, are doing better however -- about 87 percent are making payments.

The program appears to be working well, according to Elder Carmack. He gave multiple examples of success stories, emphasizing that these stories were not unusual.

He told of one man in Kenya, Tyson Kennege, who grew up in an orphanage and then joined the LDS Church. Kennege told the PEF missionaries that he wanted a loan to attend the best university in his country. He was accepted to the university and was given the loan. Kennege e-mailed the PEF missionaries this summer that he had been elected student body president. "He's on his way!" Elder Carmack almost shouted with joy. "He's got a future!"

E-mail: mdegroote@desnews.com