Temple Recommend Holder - Emma Waiting at Cumorah For Joseph Smith During First Vision in the Sacred Grove

Waiting at Cumorah – Emma Waiting for Joseph Smith During First Vision in the Sacred Grove by Matt Kennedy

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Emma Waiting at Cumorah in the Sacred Grove During Joseph Smith’s First Vision

This beautiful painting depicts a patiently waiting Emma at the Hill Cumorah. We can wonder what she must have seen and felt during that most monumental moment.

Emma Smith, wife of Joseph Smith, played a prominent role in the restoration of the Church. Her mother-in-law, Lucy Mack Smith, praised Emma’s character: “I have never seen a woman in my life, who would endure every species of fatigue and hardship, from month to month, and from year to year, with that unflinching courage, zeal, and patience, which she has always done. … She has been tossed upon the ocean of uncertainty; … She has breasted the storms of persecution, and buffeted the rage of men and devils, … which have borne down almost any other woman.”

Born on July 10, 1804, in Willingsborough (later Harmony), Pennsylvania, Emma Hale was the seventh of nine children of Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. The wealthy family lived on a 90-acre farm in the Susquehanna River Valley, where Isaac shipped meat and other merchandise downriver to Philadelphia and Baltimore.

As a child, Emma developed a deep sense of religious conviction and devotion to God. Methodism became popular in the Susquehanna region in the early 1800s, and Emma began attending with her mother at the age of seven. A family tradition suggests that Isaac Hale overheard his young daughter Emma praying for him in the woods near their home and that this contributed to his spiritual conversion. Emma most likely attended the female seminary in Great Bend Township, and she later taught school.

Emma was 21 years old when she met 19-year-old Joseph Smith at the end of October 1825. Joseph had come southwest from New York seeking employment in the Susquehanna Valley. His lack of education and resources contrasted with Emma’s respectable situation, but she was immediately impressed with his character and morals. They courted for several months while Joseph worked to improve his financial situation. Isaac and Elizabeth Hale were opposed to the relationship, disapproving of Joseph’s religious pursuits and his work for Josiah Stowell, who had hired Joseph to help him dig for purported lost Spanish silver in the area. Emma and Joseph eloped on January 18, 1827, in South Bainbridge, New York, and then went to live with the Smith family. They returned to Pennsylvania in December 1827 to live near her family and work on the translation of the Book of Mormon. (Thank you to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website for this lovely description.)

Art by Oliver Johnson – this artwork is also available as a giclee canvas art print.. please visit our Latter-day Saint Inspirational Art section –

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