So the Documents, volume 2
covers July 1831 through January of 1833. And this is a really
significant time in both Joseph Smith’s life and the
development of the Church. Joseph receives a revelation in
July of 1831 telling him that the centerpiece for the City of
Zion is Independence, Missouri.
And so because of that, Joseph has to spend quite a bit of time during this period
traveling to Missouri to guide the Saints there about how the
city of Zion should develop.
So with Joseph spending quite a bit of time away from
home in this period, we are able to have two letters
that survived that he wrote to Emma. One of the letters Joseph
writes from Greenville, Indiana,
where he talks about finding out
that his brother Hyrum had just lost his daughter Mary, who was
not quite three years old.
And as some backdrop to this,
prior to this time,
the three children that Joseph and Emma had born to them had
all perished in infancy. And he writes in this
letter to Emma—
he says, I was grieved to hear of
Hyrum’s loss of his daughter.
And then and what I think is just
a overwhelming understatement,
says,
“I think we can in some ways
sympathize with him.”
And I think that's something that
you just don't really see very much with Joseph that it hurt him
to lose his children, that he knew that Emma struggled
with that as well.
But then he concludes his letter
by saying that we must have
faith that God will
provide for us, that God will will bless us.
And I just think that's that's
something that really touches my
own heart when
I read that.