The Prophet Joseph Smith / Happy Birthday on December 23rd

This is a part of a letter I wrote to my Landon last night on his misson and would like to share it with my blog readers. It is long but please take the time to read it sometime. Joseph Smith is an amazing person and I remember Dianne reminding me on the 23rd that it was his birthday and being so greatful for him again and again.
I would like to bear you my testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and all he did for us. It is so comforting to me to know that even a person as "perfect" as Joseph Smith still needed the lords help at times and that he used the atonement so much knowing that the Lord had already suffered for him and he would need to just turn it over to the Lord but still had hard times and doubts at times. If that makes sense Basically it is just good to know that even our prophets and even Nephi as good as a man as he was still had to turn to the Lord and Christ and ask for forgiveness and ask for help and turn their lives over to him. I am sure you heard about the FHE lesson that Chris gave back in November about the atonement and it all started because of a letter you had sent home about finally being able to understand the atonement and the talk that Bednar gave about it. So Chris gave the most amazing lesson and that was the other turning point in pulling me out of my rut and wanting to die stage after I moved out of Aaron's. (thanks Chris I will never be the same person after that lesson. You litterally changed my life. Thank you so much) I decided that I had to turn my life over to him because He has already suffered what I am suffering and he know what I am going through and I can't do it without him. My life has been totally different since then and I am so much happier now that I don't do anything with out checking with the Lord first because he knows it all and sees the big picture. I just love my prophet Joseph Smith and can not wait for the day that I get to meet him and thank him for all he has done for me and the church. A patient gave us an amazing story / letter for christmas and I would like to share it with you. If you don't have time to read it now I understand but it is just amazing what this man did and endured and I love him so much.

Joseph had many stressful trails to deal with in his life. Let me relate some of those, and later tell you what I think was the most gut wrenching times of his life:
From lds.org:
Few have confronted more antagonism and trials than did Joseph Smith. He was desiged with dozens of unjustified lawsuits and was often in jeopardy of his life. He was poinsoned, beaten, tarred, unjustly impirsoned, and once sentenced to die by firing auad. He and Emma seldom had a home of thier own, and six of their children did in infancy. Financial difficulites continually plagued the family.
Legal Trials of the Prophet: Joseph Smith's life In courtn by Joseph I. Bentley
From my years of reserch and work on the Joseph Smith Papers project (which I cant wait to start reading they sound amazing. We will have to start sending them to you if you can read them) i have gained a deeper appreciation of Joseph's achievements, despite intense and unrelenting adversity. Among his other tribulations was the fact that his ministry was shadowed by many persistent legal prosercutions. Anyone who has been through even one lawsuit knows how all consuming it can be. (Yes I can attest to that. My dad is in another one right now because a patient overdosed and died and I am so scared for him, my job for everything and it is so consuming. It is hard not to think about it every moment. )It can demand your time assets, body and mind.
At best we can tell, he endured an average of one lawsuit per month during most of his ministry! (can you imagine How stressful that must have been. Just one every ten years or so is enough to damage me for life)
Joseph's court trials were a very stressful time in his life. Yet, in my opinion, that was not what caused him the most grief and sorrow.
Josph's Imprisonment:
Joseph was a prisoner in a number of jails, including Leberty Jail.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopdia: "Joseph SMith, Jr., and his companions were imprisoned in Liberty Jail for four and a falkf months during the coldest pat of Missouri winter.
No bedding was provided so the prisoners were forced to sleep on the stone floor with only a bit of loose straw for comfort. (the height of the Jail ceilin never permitted JOseph to stand fully erect, (remember we went there can you imagine not being able to stant up straight for four in a half months. we have no idea) which must have been frustrating experience).
Food was scanty, of poor quality.
Joseph's time spent as a prisoner was a very stressful and difficult time in his life. Yet, it was not what caused him the most grief and sorrow.
Zions Camp:
Zion's Camp must have been a very difficult time in the life of Joseph SMith. The journey itself was long and arduous. According to Map quest the distance from Kirkland to Indepencence Missour is 808 miles. Zio's camp particiapnats didn't sleep in deluxe motel or hotel rooms. They had to sleep in tents, which was not a very luxurious accommodation. Then to experience the sadness of seeing deaths occurred so rapidly that coffins could not be prepared, so the dead ere rolled up in blankets and put hurredly into their graves; and while part of the brethren were engaged in digging the graves, others had to stand gurard, musket in hand. In all about seventy suffered from the cholera, and out of that number thirteen died.
(Contributator, vol. 7( Cotober 1885 - September 1886), Vol. Vii March 1886. No. 6. 210.)
Zion's Camp was a very stressful and difficult time in the life of Joseph Smith. Yet, in my opinion, iw was not was caused him the most grief and sorrow.
Then what did cause Joseph the most gut wrenching sorrow of his life? His absence from his family, and the hardships he and they had to endure becuase of him not being able tot be with them.
I was deeply moved by an article in the September 2008 Ensign concerning "The letters of Joseph and Emma Smith." This article gave me a much greater appreciation for the many sacrifices Joseph made as God's first Prophet in these latter-days.
May I quote from that article:
"Joseph and Emma endured many hardships. Joseph traveled extensibely for the church and was often obliged to find safety amoung friends to avoid angry mobs or numerous legal harassments."
(omg it is two in the morning I got to go to bed I will finish tomorrow)