The first comes from the John Schmidt’s … agriculture Alberta column (Calgary Herald) of September 20, 1972. John Schmidt wrote about a cattlemen tour
deep into Mormon country to visit … Simmental Breeders Cardston Ltd., headed by Travers Smith. ... Following lunch, something happened which caught us off base in this computer age, but it demonstrated the fact that cattle men like Travers Smith don’t put all their faith in electronic gadgetry. There is something higher. He presented us all with The Book of Mormon, and gave this profound testimony: “There is one thing more valuable to me than that herd of cattle you saw today. It is this Book. In it you can read about the performance test of human endeavor on this earth.” It was something to make one pause and consider very deeply.The second account was recorded by Travers' eldest daughter following a December 21, 1973 conversation. On the way home from the Calgary airport, Travers told his daughters about his recent experience in Billings, Montana. His daughter wrote:
The Montana Simmental Assoc. had a conference at which they honored dad in October. ... All the men at the convention were wearing “Thank You Travers” buttons. Mr. Furgeson, the secretary of the organization said a lot, & kind of instigated the affair. When Mr. Furgeson presented Dad with the trophy[-clock] honoring him. He said Dad could answer in only 12 words. [Previously Mr. F. had given Dad a bad time about not being a good enough salesman (not talking enough)]. When Dad replied, he said that he was going to pull a switch on Mr. F. and say a lot. Dad said that the spirit there was really a good spirit so he felt moved to speak on more of a spiritual [plane]. He spoke about performance testing in cattle & compared it to us as God’s children & our performance tests. He referred them to the Bible as being our handbook for personal performance. He also expressed to them that it was by the hand of the Lord that he brought Parisien to Canada. After his testimony the men all came forward and thanked him for his talk not the cattle. The men also honored Mr. Furgeson for all that he had done to keep M.S.A. on its feet. (BYSJ:Jan 9, 1974:44-5)A third account comes from Tom and Dianne Risinger found at http://www.simmgene.com/pdf/register/40years_208.pdf :
… About the same time, we ran into Charlie Redd from Utah, who had just come back from Europe and he was raving about the Simmental cattle he saw. One day, a really nice, smart, and very intense man named Travers Smith from Cardston, Alberta, came to our house to visit with us about Simmental Cattle. He wore a suit coat with a Book of Mormon in one pocket and a photo album of Simmental cattle in the other. Here was an honest, sincere man who was definitely on a mission and believed in what he was doing. At a meeting in town that night where Travers spoke, we ordered 20 units of semen on a yellow paint calf named Parisien that, at the time, was still waiting to be released from quarantine by Canadian agricultural authorities. ...
... I’ll never forget Travers Smith. He came to visit us when we had only 40 cows and they weren’t even paid for. He had time for anyone who would listen to him. (Tom & Dianne Risinger “40 Years and counting, Part II” by Dan Rieder)
