I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go

By Jonathan H. Westover

Since I was a little boy, a mission was something I looked forward to. My dad served a full-time mission in Brazil, and as I hit my teenage years, I had the examples of two older brothers who faithfully served the Lord on two-year missions.

Even during those late teenage years, when doubt filled my mind and I felt like I had to question everything I had always taken for granted, I still looked forward to serving a mission. I figured I would at least have the opportunity to help some people, possibly learn another language, and develop some important life skills.

Then one Sunday morning in sacrament meeting, I was deeply touched as I sang the following words:

Perhaps today there are loving words

Which Jesus would have me speak;

There may be now in the paths of sin

Some wand’rer whom I should seek.

(“I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go,” Hymns, no. 270)

In that instant, the Spirit spoke deep to my heart, and I knew the real reason I was needed in the mission field.

Throughout my mission and after coming home, I have always remembered the words of that hymn:

So trusting my all to thy tender care,

And knowing thou lovest me,

I’ll do thy will with a heart sincere:

I’ll be what you want me to be.

I’ve learned that it is not enough to just do good things, but we must do them for the right reasons. And what blessings that brings!