A Faithful Girl Named Emma How much do you know about the faithful little girl who grew up to be the wife of the Prophet ? By Mark Staker Church History Department

watch baby lambs father because he did not have play, and she could a strong faith in Jesus Christ. help gather vege- While Emma was praying, her tables from the big father came into the woods garden. When the to go hunting. When he over- snow started to melt, heard his young daughter she could watch praying for him, he was very her father collect touched. His faith in the Lord mma Hale was born on maple sap in big buckets. She was strengthened. E July 10, 1804. She lived could help her mother boil the Emma grew to be a tall, on a farm with her father and sap until it finally turned into intelligent girl. She was an mother and her eight brothers maple sugar. excellent reader and writer. and sisters. Some of her aunts, When she was a baby, Emma When she was 21, a hard- uncles, and cousins lived was baptized into a Christian working and intelligent nearby. church, and she went to Sunday young man named Joseph The Hale farm was in School when she was a girl. The Smith came to live at the Hale Harmony, Pennsylvania, in a Church of Jesus Christ had not home. Emma Hale had a good beautiful valley along the bank been restored yet. character and a quick wit. She of the Susquehanna One day when Emma was was a virtuous young woman. River. Emma could about eight years old, she No wonder she and Joseph pick apples from the went to pray in the woods. chose each other as husband orchard. She could She was worried about her and wife! ◆

28 Friend Left: illustrations by Julie Rogers; right: All Things Dear, by Julie Rogers; Time to Laugh, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied; Joseph and Emma at the Hill , by Robert T. Barrett © 1987; Emma’s Hymns, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied; Thou Shalt Be Comforted, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied; Emma Smith, the Elect Lady, by Theodore Gorka © 1996 IRI; Organization of the , by Dale Kilbourn © IRI; photograph by Jed A. Clark; Of One Heart, by Liz Lemon Swindle, Foundation Arts, may not be copied 

1. When Joseph went to the Hill 6. When Church members were forced Cumorah to get the gold plates to leave their homes in Missouri, from Moroni, Emma went with she and her children walked across him and waited by the wagon. the frozen Mississippi River to 2. When Joseph translated the gold escape. In two cloth bags tied plates, Emma was the first scribe. around her waist, she carried Joseph would tell her what to write papers with Joseph’s translations down as he translated the words. of the . Emma Grown Up 3. Emma collected hymns for the 7. She was a loving mother of 11 Find the pictures that match some Church’s first hymnbook. children, including 2 who were of the important things Emma did 4. She was the first president of the adopted. Only 5 of them lived to when she grew up. Write the number Relief Society in Nauvoo. be adults. of each description on the matching 5. She helped people who were sick 8. Emma loved her husband, Joseph, illustration. and let poor people stay in her home. all his life and did many things to support him in his important work of restoring the Lord’s Church.

September 2010 29