Member Testimony

President Boyd K. Packer has said, “Oh, if I could teach you this one principle: a testimony is found in the bearing of it!” Further, M. Russell Ballard teaches that "testimony - real testimony, born of the Spirit and confirmed by the Holy Ghost - changes lives."

From time to time we will share member testimonies. Both for personal benefit as President Packer has said; to enable members to find their own testimonies by bearing them, and also for the benefit of others as M. Russell Ballard teaches; to change lives.

Our first member testimony comes from Brother Lyle Russell.

Being a convert to the church, I had some reservations going in. As with any new venture, there is always an element of uncertainty, and this was no different. However, some of the immediate burning questions I had were pretty easily answered, and some answers I already had and didn’t even know it.

For example, I have always had a big interest in genealogy. I was raised by my Grandmother and Great Grandmother and I think that’s where my love of history, especially family history comes from. They had both saved a lot of information on relatives long before them, which I was fortunate enough to have possession of when they both passed. I have to think there was a reason they had saved all of these papers with birth records, dates, places, etc. from our family but it was stuck in files and kind of unorganized. I was able to sort through it all, organize it and now have a very good record of my family history on that side, but I didn’t really know why all of that had fallen to me. There was a reason they saved it, and there was a reason I had it. None of us really knew that reason until it became clear through the church genealogy program what the purpose of that information was. It came to me because somewhere there was a plan for me to organize it, document it, and now being a member of the church I can do the necessary baptisms for my family who passed long before me.

Another interesting aspect of that information was that I had a large portion of family that was in and around Miller’s Hollow, Iowa from the early 1820’s through when the church moved through the area and renamed it Kanesville in honor of a prominent church member. It was then renamed Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa in 1853. This was all within just a few miles of Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Now at the time I found this information it didn’t mean anything extraordinary but as I studied some of the church pioneer history, some things I had never thought about started to make sense. When I began researching some of my family history on LDS.org, I found a lot of information in there on these family members that already existed. It appears some temple work had already been done for some of them and I didn’t even know it! Then I started thinking back to a discussion I had with my Grandmother one time when I was in my early teens. We were going over some family history and I remembered specifically her telling me that some of my family members were Mormons. At the time I didn’t really know much about it but of all things she ever said to me, that nugget of information always stuck in my mind. All at once, the pieces fit together and made perfect sense. When the church came to that area, some of my ancestors joined the westward movement of the church. Even though I don’t know exactly which ones were members, I am proud to think that some of my relatives were part of the pioneer movement and the establishment of the Church.

         
When I was kid, I could not fathom any of the reasons this information would collect and come to me, but I now know that it was no accident. There was a purpose for it all. I was meant to have it and when the time was right, the reasons were revealed to me of what I was to do with it. Now I have the honor and privilege of establishing this record for future generations of my family. This has been one of the many blessings I have in my life since I joined the Church, and I am sure there are many more to come.