{"id":3020,"date":"2011-08-31T11:49:35","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T17:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ldswomenofgod.com\/blog\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2019-01-20T21:31:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T03:31:46","slug":"the-rift-between-emma-and-brigham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reliefsocietywomen.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/31\/the-rift-between-emma-and-brigham\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rift Between Emma and Brigham"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the most wonderful experience learning about The Rift, a piece of history of which I was not aware. I attended the Sons of the Utah Pioneer Convention (2011) and met with some great Mormon heritage: Gracia N. Jones, and Michael and Darcy Kennedy (from the Smith family), and Mary Ellen Elggren (from the Young family).<\/span><\/p>\n

They spoke about the rift between Emma Smith and Brigham Young. You may have heard that Emma and Brigham did not get along very well and that Emma stayed behind in Nauvoo with bad feelings, but there is quite a bit more to the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those bad feelings became a skeleton-in-the-family-closet over the years. Somehow, without overtly talking about it, the Smith descendants grew to be wary of the Utah Mormons and to keep hushed the fact their ancestor was a prophet of the Mormon Church. Many of these people grew up without religion because the Smith grandchildren eventually became disillusioned with the RLDS and left that church as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gracia talked about her role in all of this (being the first descendant of Joseph Smith to be baptized). All she thought, in the beginning, was that the missionaries were kind of cute. Little did she know that her mission on this earth would be as profound as collecting the members of this lost family, and bringing them back together.<\/span><\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t grow up with bad feelings about Brigham Young, but little by little, as she met other cousins, she sensed there was something going on. During the 1977 reunion in Kirtland, she was preparing to speak on the role of the women in Kirtland. She began feeling overwhelmed with the burden of teaching correct doctrine to the children and bringing their hearts to their fathers. She needed to share her burden of responsibility with someone and the Lord sent her Michael and Darcy Kennedy. Michael is a cousin, and the first to hold the Melchizedek priesthood in the Smith family, since Joseph Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n

Darcy has received countless inspirations to promote healing and gathering within the family. The three have worked endless hours in bringing this fragmented family together. Although related only by marriage, Darcy has been involved from the beginning, offering encouragement and spiritual insight for the cause. We should all be so invested in our spouse\u2019s heritage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gracia told us of a vision she had at that first reunion. In the vision, she could see Joseph\u2019s posterity standing in dark shadows, while on the other side Hyrum\u2019s family stood in the light. There was a rift between these two families because Hyrum\u2019s family went out west with the Saints. The message she received was that Hyrum\u2019s family needed to be the missionaries to bring Joseph\u2019s family back into the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

And who should lead Hyrum\u2019s family? Gracia Jones. She remembers asking the Lord, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you get a man to do it?\u201d She distinctly heard a reply, \u201cIt is a mother\u2019s duty to gather her children.\u201d She recalled how Lucy Mack Smith, known to all as Mother Smith, bore her testimony often that she hoped all would be able to sit together in the Celestial Kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rifts not only involved the descendants within the Smith family, but they also extended into the Young family as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Michael who felt impressed to request that a representative, from the Brigham Young Family Organization, formulate an apology, or \u201cHealing Letter\u201d, to be read at the Smith Family reunion in 2007.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Mary Ellen Elggren, past president of the Brigham Young Family Organization, first heard of this request, she was shocked and completely caught off guard. She knew the Youngs had no bad feelings toward Emma, but she was quickly learning that Emma\u2019s children indeed had a tradition of hurt that had somehow caused a rift through the ages.<\/span><\/p>\n

She set out to write the apology but discovered, because she didn\u2019t have a personal feeling about it, it was a difficult task. After much prayer and fasting, she felt the heavens open, and the words came down landing emotionally on the page. She acknowledges that the words are not hers.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was invited to read the \u201cHealing Letter\u201d to the Smith family at their reunion, which was held in Nauvoo that year. Afterward, members of both families, along with some from Hyrum\u2019s family, attended a temple session together in that temple that was built by Joseph. Everyone felt multitudes of other family members from the other side of the veil embracing the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that summer, the Smith family was invited to Salt Lake City to attend the Young family reunion. Again, they attended a session together; this time in the temple that Brigham built. And once again, the veil was very thin.<\/span><\/p>\n

When this \u201cHealing Letter\u201d was read to the Smith family, they all recognized a key had been turned that unlocked the resentment of a generation. The rift, now dissolved, allowing the Smith family to be gathered with open arms. Both Gracia and Michael ask all of us while\u00a0searching out our ancestors,\u00a0to preach and invite with love, to bring them all into the fold.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, Joseph and Emma\u2019s posterity has been stunted over the years. The family believes this is one more way Satan has tried to get rid of Joseph Smith. Their children didn\u2019t have that many children.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of those children who grew to adulthood:<\/span><\/p>\n