I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go: New Mission Leaders Called to Serve in the Philippines
Kara SchofieldFeatured Photo; Jon and Karen Scholl in May 2023 with Jon’s aircraft in the background. Jon obtained his private pilot license in 1984 and continues to enjoy flying. They will depart for San Pablo, Philippines, in June 2023 to serve as mission leaders to about 200 missionaries, most of them Filipino. Photo taken by Rich Thrasher.
The lines of a popular Christian hymn written by Mary Brown in the 1890s, “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go,” are particularly meaningful for missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They certainly ring true for Jon and Karen Scholl of Prosper, Texas, who will move to San Pablo, Philippines, this month to begin three years of service dedicated to spreading the gospel preached by Jesus Christ. Their assignment is a little different from the norm: in the Scholls’ case, their role is to lead and oversee more than 200 missionaries, mostly young adult men and women, in their daily efforts to share God’s love.
A call to serve as a full-time missionary in the Church of Jesus Christ comes after financial and spiritual preparation, but individuals do not choose where they will spend their time. Rather, they are assigned to geographic locations by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a process guided by inspiration and described by Elder Ronald A. Rasband — currently an Apostle himself — in a sermon given to the global population of the Church in 2010. Thus, when prospective missionaries receive their assignments by email, they often gather family and friends to read the letter aloud in a sort of “reveal party.” The letter tells them in which of 416 locations they will serve, the language(s) they will learn, and when they begin their service, which lasts from six to twenty-four months.
Like other missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ, the Scholls received an assignment by email that they read with their five children and ten grandchildren over a Zoom call in December 2022. But their call to serve came as more of a surprise; unbeknownst to them, a local church leader had once recommended them to Church headquarters as candidates to serve as mission leaders, and they received a call from an administrative assistant to Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for an initial interview in October 2022. A second interview with President Russell M. Nelson, prophet and President of the Church, came just days later, where he formally extended a call to serve and the Scholls accepted, even though they did not know the specific assignment for approximately two more months.
Jon Scholl, an adult convert to the Church of Jesus Christ, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former Lieutenant and submarine engineer with nine years of service to his country, retired in 2020 after a second career in business strategy and healthcare administration and technology. Karen devoted much of their married life to raising and educating their children as well as volunteering in many capacities both in her church and community.
Jon says of their upcoming service, “We’ve thought a lot about that…. What on earth makes us qualified to do this kind of thing?” He continues by paraphrasing a thought from Elder Neal A. Maxwell, an Apostle from 1976 to 2004, “The Lord doesn’t look first at your capability. He looks at your availability and your dependability, and then and then he will increase your capability.”
Karen agrees. “[Jesus Christ] doesn’t need us to gather Israel. He can do that all by Himself, but He allows us to help Him in that work. It’s important to us to be sure that we’re helping Him in what He needs done.” She looks forward to the promises that they will be aided by the Spirit in their work. “It’s not about what we want, or what we would do,” she says. “It’s about what He would do.”
Indeed, Jon and Karen Scholl continue to live by the motto penned in the hymn: “I’ll go where You want me to go, dear Lord… I’ll be what You want me to be.”
Read more about what full-time missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ do here and here, and more insight into mission leadership right here in North Texas.
Kara Schofield lives with her husband, nearly grown youngest, and the family doodle in the Prosper Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She can often be found at one keyboard or another: writing, documenting personal and family history, accompanying school choirs, and learning how to play jazz music. Her greatest joys are her four children and their spouses, a sizable extended family, pies, mountains, and Jesus Christ.
