Go And Serve, Urges Four-Time Missionary to the Philippines

This year, Elder Monte Schofield and his wife Sister Kathy Schofield will be completing their service as a couple missionary assigned to the Manila Philippines Temple. This is the couple’s third call to serve in the country, and the fourth for Elder Schofield.

“Go and serve!” Elder Schofield constantly invites young Filipino Latter-day Saints, especially the Young Men. “It will bless the life of those you teach and it will bless your life in more ways than you can imagine.”

And Elder Schofield surely knows what he’s speaking of.

Monte Schofield had always planned to serve a mission but when the time came in 1971, it was a difficult decision. “It was the time of the Viet Nam War and that had to be a factor in the life of a young man from the US,” he recalls. Learning he would not be drafted for military service unlike other young adults he knew, Brother Schofield heeded the prophet’s call for every young man to serve a mission.

Brother Schofield was called to serve in the Philippines Mission from 1971 to 1973, which then covered the entire archipelago. He was assigned to Quezon City (Cubao area), Angeles, Bacolod, Los Bańos/Calamba, Caloocan (Malabon and Navotas area), and Davao City. “I developed a great love of the gospel, my Savior, and the Filipino people,” recalls Elder Schofield of his pioneer proselyting days.

The Schofields were married in the Idaho Falls Temple in 1974 and raised a family of two boys and three girls. After retiring from working in the retail clothing business, Brother Schofield responded positively to the invitation to serve the Lord again full-time.

“I have always told my wife I wanted to come back to the Philippines and serve as a senior couple,” Elder Schofield reveals, “I love this country, and most of all the kind hearted people.” Together, the Schofields served in the Cebu City Philippines Temple (2015–2017), Philippines Olongapo Mission (2019), and lastly in the Manila Philippines Temple (2024–2025).

All in all, Elder Schofield wants the rising generation to know that serving a mission will change their lives, just as it changed his: “I cannot imagine how much different my life would have been had I chosen not to serve.”