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.