‘This is What We Do; This is How We Roll’
Juliette QureshiNew Fort Worth Mission Leaders Accept Assignment with Faith
Many Texans have seen missionaries, young people from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from all over the world who leave home for 18–24 months to serve others and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ full time. They wear black name tags and pay their own way—no matter where they’re asked to go.
When those assigned to North Texas arrive at DFW Airport, they’re greeted by Mission Leaders—a presiding husband and wife team—similarly called to serve in the area. But instead of leaving their families behind, as the young adults do, Mission Leaders bring their children with them for a three-year term.
Jarom and Jamie John arrived from Idaho in July with five of their seven children; they will guide the 200 young missionaries currently serving in the Texas Fort Worth mission until 2025.
“This is where God is directing us,” says Jarom John. “This is where we need to be, for reasons we don’t know yet.” Faith has guided much of their married life together.
The Johns met 23 years ago, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. After they married, they moved to Baltimore, Maryland for dental school, and started their family. After graduation, they went back to Idaho to practice dentistry until Jarom joined a group in Westminster, Colorado. Ultimately, he started a new practice and they built a home. They refer to the next decade as their “Camelot Era” as more children—six daughters and one son in total—joined the family.
The Johns served at church and in the community and never planned to leave Colorado, but when COVID hit, they “began to have feelings pulling them back to Idaho,” closer to their aging parents. They decided to sell their home and the dental practice and slow down. “But the Lord had other plans,” laughs Jarom.
They bought a house in Idaho so the children could start school and Jamie found the perfect land on which to build a new home. But just as they hired a contractor, Jarom was awakened in the night with a clear impression: “Do not build right now.” They were baffled but with commodities at a premium, they waited six months to figure out what to do next. “We were in limbo, waiting on the Lord,” says Jamie.
In October, the Johns were asked to meet with Elder Dale G. Renlund, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in Salt Lake City. After speaking with him about their family, their faith in Jesus, and their financial ability to step into full-time church service for three years, they left his office not knowing if anything would come of it.
A week later, the Johns were invited to meet with President Russell M. Nelson, a man they revere as a living prophet, who asked them to serve as leaders of a mission beginning in July. President Nelson did not specify the location of the assignment, but “that didn’t matter. He just asked about our willingness,” says Jarom. “We’re always going to do what the Lord wants us to do. This is what we do; this is how we roll.”
President Nelson counseled with them about the assignment and what the move would mean to their teenagers. They left his office “on a spiritual high, feeling so inspired we felt we could do anything the Lord asks,” says Jarom.
After the meeting, they flew from Salt Lake to Waco to attend the BYU v. Baylor football game and “fell in love with the people of Texas.” Little did they know they’d be moving to the area less than nine months later. As the Johns waited to receive their assignment, they were asked not to tell anyone—not even their children—until December.
As a young man, Jarom served as a missionary in Spain. They wondered if they’d be assigned there or to one of the nearly 60 Spanish-speaking missions in the Caribbean, or Central or South America. When they finally received word they’d be heading to Fort Worth, “We bawled like babies,” says Jamie. “We knew. It felt so right.”
As joyful as they were, they were concerned about how to tell their children. Two of their high school girls; Brynlee, 18; and Kayla, 17, were entering their junior and senior years and had just begun to thrive in Idaho after being uprooted from Colorado. They began by calling their two eldest daughters, who were both serving full-time missions: 21-year-old Alexis in California, and 20-year-old Lydia in Spokane, Washington. The girls were supportive and enthusiastic. “We asked them to pray for their siblings,” says Jamie.
One night as the family knelt for prayer, Jarom pulled out the picture they had taken with President Nelson at his office in Utah. When the high schoolers understood what it meant, they started to cry. “Brinley sobbed for two hours. She couldn’t even speak,” says Jamie. Ultimately, they gave the rising senior a choice to stay in Idaho with Jamie’s parents, but asked her, whatever the decision, “to take it to the Lord and see if that was His plan for her.”
The Johns shared the counsel President Nelson had for their children. Over the next six months, each, including 13-year-old Nathan, 12-year-old Ellie, and even 9-year-old Galilee “sought peace and comfort about the move during personal prayer.”
Although it meant walking away from a spot in an elite performing group in Idaho, Brinley “came to know for herself there was something in Texas [she] needed to learn and grow from.” She decided to come to Texas with the family. She won a spot on the Colleyville High School drill team via video last spring.
“It was quite remarkable to see her faith and trust in the Lord,” says Jarom. “She understands that if she’ll follow what the Lord asks of her, He will support her.”
As the family gets to know the hundreds of missionaries who will cycle through the mission for the next three years, they are sure to become fond of their new home state, and, as they always are, the people of Texas stand ready with open arms.
Juliette Qureshi is a wife, mom of four, and media communications professional living in Keller, Texas.
