- “Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, described some of the characteristics that made it possible for Emma to support Joseph through difficult times: “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 ever done; for I know that which she had had to endure…She has breasted the storms of persecution and buffeted the rage of men and devils, which would have borne down almost any other woman” (History of Joseph Smith, ed. Preston Nibley [1958], 190–91). Doctrine and Covenants and Church History: Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, (1999), 53–57