“We Depend 100 Percent on Him”

After Reina Isabel Nieto returned home from her mission in 1985, she was determined to begin a career as a secretary. She sent out applications and was called in for multiple interviews. Unfortunately, most of them did not go well. “I needed to pay for my own expenses, including food, clothing, and schooling, and after that help my family with some of my earnings,” she said. “I also had a great desire in my mind to be able to pay my tithing.”

After several months, Reina accepted a position as the secretary to the director of an educational institution. “I was really happy to have been chosen and had a lot of enthusiasm for my new job,” she said. The salary from this job would allow her to pay her expenses.

About a week after she started working, however, Reina was called to her boss’s office. When she was asked to do something unethical, she resigned. Walking away, unemployed and alone on the street in the middle of a hot day, she reflected. “For a moment, I forgot everything around me, my heart was so small, several tears rolled down my face, but despite all this, I felt brave and had a strong desire in my heart to find new work,” she said.

In this moment, Reina had a conversation with her Father in Heaven. “I told Him that it had cost a lot of time to find work, but I told Him that I would not lower my moral standards and that was the reason why I had quit,” she said. “Now I needed Him to tell me where I had to go to find a new job.” Afterward, Reina felt inspired to visit a friend who lived nearby.

The friend was not home, but her mother was. Reina asked her to pass along the message that she had stopped by for a job referral. The friend’s mother told her the company next door was interviewing for a secretary. Full of excitement, Reina rushed over to introduce herself and make an appointment. “Surprisingly, they interviewed me at that very moment,” Reina said. She was selected for the job and worked there for the next two years.

“I love my Heavenly Father because, as I look at my life, I see a pattern in my communication with Him. When I have put Him first, everything else comes in addition,” Reina said. “He knows us, He knows our problems, but when we have done our part and something happens to us in which we really need Him, He is there, seeing our activities, our efforts, sacrifice, and humility in knowing that we depend 100 percent on Him.”