I grew up on a farm near Burley, Idaho. Burley is where the “Ida” part of “Ore-Ida” potato products come from. My father was called as a bishop of a country ward when I was six years old. He only served for three years because of an illness in our family. My mother was my Primary teacher. In those days the older boys in Primary were called Blazers, Trekkers, and Guides. My mother was the teacher of the Guide boys.
When I became 12 years old I received the priesthood and joined Boy Scouts. I often rode my horse to scout meetings along with my neighbor friend and the scoutmaster. I lived 22 miles from the church.
My Grandfather Taylor served a mission for the church after he was married to a woman with four young children. My grandmother often said that if he had come home and said it was the happiest two years of his life she would have hit him. While he was gone on his mission, his family had lots of troubles with sickness and other problems trying to make ends meet. My Grandfather Taylor died 20 years before I was born so I never got to meet him.
My Grandmother Taylor was a widow for 34 years and lived on the farm with us in Idaho. She was a granddaughter of Shadrach Roundy who was a member of the first pioneer company into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. He is mentioned in the Doctrine & Covenants 124:141.
My Grandfather Taylor was a grandson of William Taylor who was one of the first persons baptized in the state of Missouri in 1832. After he cast his lot with the saints, he and his family suffered many persecutions. It is reported that he lost over 1000 acres of land as he moved from place to place with the saints. The last land they owned was near Far West, Missouri. When the extermination order came from Governor Boggs, the Taylor family again left all their land and most of their possessions to go to Nauvoo.
William Taylor never made it to Nauvoo. Because of illness from exposure, he died about 25 miles from Nauvoo near Warsaw, Illinois. His wife went on to Nauvoo with her 14 children and was eventually given a lot to build a house on in “Widow’s Row.” She saw the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum Smith when they were brought back from Carthage Jail. She was in the meeting when the mantle of Joseph Smith fell on Brigham Young, and the people thought they saw and heard Joseph Smith speaking. This convinced them that Brigham Young should be the next prophet of the Church.
I believe a testimony is not an all-inclusive thing, but is made up of individual testimonies of various aspects of the gospel. For example, I have never had a problem with keeping the Word of Wisdom. It just seemed to be the right thing to do. On the other hand, I must have never had a testimony of genealogy work in my younger years since I never did any. I watched my wife search diligently for her ancestors, many of whom were also early Mormon pioneers, but it did not help me to want to do my own genealogy. It has been the last year or so that I have gained a testimony of the importance of genealogy work enough to do some of my own.
I think a testimony is not what you say, but what you do. It is something that must continually be nourished and must continue to grow until it encompasses every aspect of the restored gospel to the extent that it affects what we do in life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.