“Precious Bonsai Trees and Precious Testimonies,” Liahona, Sept. 2025.
Precious Bonsai Trees and Precious Testimonies
Each testimony is a priceless gift that requires intense personal devotion and faith for it to endure as a thing of beauty and joy.
Photograph courtesy of the author
In the center of Tokyo, Japan, I saw something in a beautiful garden park that amazed me. Beside a path through the park sat a wall on which were strapped more than a dozen small pots, each containing a bonsai tree. Each uniquely beautiful tree had a small sign that showed its age. Most were over 100 years old.
One, 390 years old, still bore fruit. Another had two entwined trunks—one dead, the other alive. It was an astonishing 590 years old.
I imagined how each bonsai tree must have originally been grown and pruned with great pride and joy. Later, the trees likely became family heirlooms. I thought of aging parents charging their children with the responsibility of tenderly nourishing the family bonsai tree, keeping it safe from harm and preserving it for future generations.
These miniature trees in Tokyo have survived through terrible wars and times of peace, through great storms and times of calm weather. They are an extraordinary testament to devotion, tradition, and loving care.
A Precious Gift
Since seeing these bonsai trees, I have been intrigued with the thought of how multigenerational families in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints begin with one pioneer family member gaining a precious testimony of the restored gospel.
The testimony of each new member of the Church begins as they “give place” for or plant the word of God in their hearts and then nourish it (see Alma 32:28). As the testimony grows, the actions of that new member are shaped and pruned to a different way of life.
Through the many trials and storms of life, a nurtured testimony of Jesus Christ and His Church grows stronger. Like a bonsai tree, a testimony is shared and passed down as a precious gift for successive generations to also grow and nourish.
Each generation has the great responsibility to make that testimony its own. It is a priceless but fragile gift. For it to endure as a thing of beauty and joy requires intense personal devotion and faith.
We do not know how large the tree was that Lehi saw in his dream. But we do know it was exceedingly beautiful and that he could not wait to share its fruit with his family (see 1 Nephi 8). Lehi’s family became a vivid example of a multigenerational family—sometimes succeeding in passing on righteous traditions, and sometimes, sadly, seeing testimonies wither and die in the face of adversity, disobedience, and trials.
We rejoice in those who, as the first Latter-day Saints in their families, nurture their young testimonies by making and keeping sacred covenants. And we thank those pioneering Saints for how they pass their love of God on to future generations.
Parents, teachers, youth, and young adults who prioritize Sunday meetings, service in the temple, and attendance at seminary, institute, and conferences for youth and young adults—keeping the Savior first in their lives—are providing the spiritual soil and nourishment for young testimonies to develop.
Like the bonsai trees I saw in Tokyo, our testimonies of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel are priceless possessions that will bless those we love. They can become our legacy as we carefully nurture, cherish, and share them from generation to generation.