Reviews

Kimberly Jo Smith has just published the book Rising Hills and Sinking Valleys: A Descendant of Joseph and Emma Shares Her Story. The title is from a letter written by Emma to Joseph when he was imprisoned in Liberty, Missouri.

Fifteen years ago I was working on the outline of an historical fiction romance. It started out as a college class assignment, but quickly evolved into what would become a two-volume series called American Dream: Shadows of the Ancient Wood. I was not yet a member of the LDS Church but had for years felt the intimate connection to church history because I am a direct descendent of Joseph and Emma Smith. I kept it at arms length from the LDS Church, however, because of the traditions I had been raised with. 

While delving head-long in the writing process of my novel, I met and befriended Merrill Osmond, lead singer of the famous Osmond family. We had attended an Osmond Brother’s performances in Branson Missouri, approximately fifty miles from where I lived in Ava, and in talking with Merrill the topic of discussion turned to the Church.

I mentioned to him that Joseph Smith was my great-great grandfather and from that moment a door opened that I never expected to see unlocked.

I would learn that Merrill had seen a vision two days before we came to see the show. In this vision he was shown the Smith posterity, and they seemed distraught and sad. It got me to thinking about my own feelings about the bitterness I had seen in my father’s family growing up. I have always been one to try and pull people together, for I do not like contention and crave always to bring peace to an unsteady atmosphere.

My heart began to ache again. Many had been the times I had put such feelings aside because to think about how to fix the turmoil in this family would cause me to feel ill inside. I never could see a way, so I just loved them and in the presence of tense situations attempted to bring balance, usually through humor. So I spent much time escaping through my writing.

All of a sudden I could not write anymore. I would sit down and try to immerse myself back into 18th century England, but my mind was running in a different direction; 19th century America, primarily the period of 1805-1844. My heart was opened once again to the face of a man with piercing blue eyes I had seen many years before in a portrait, my great-great grandfather Joseph Smith.

As my mind swarmed around so many unanswered questions from my past, and the many blank slates I had concerning my family history, I heard the softest whisper to my mind that said, “You need to write your story and the history of your family.” I was in complete dismay. How could I write the history of my family when I knew very little of it? I only had pockets of information and sacks full of rumors and stories I had heard growing up, some of which had me scared to death of Mormons. However, it came to my mind that this was my chance to really begin to know what had created the tangles of emotions that seemed to have Joseph and Emma’s posterity wound in such a tight ball of contention.

It was perplexing to me to know that my father’s family had great capabilities of love, many of which I had seen multiple times, yet there was an underlying bitterness toward the LDS Church. I put aside my historical fiction romance novel and began to research and write. At times I would go back to the world of fiction because the truth was too painful to sort through. But I was diligent and learned the art of patience and the importance of understanding the necessity of things coming to fruition in the Lord’s timing, not mine.

Fifteen years after I was prompted to write my family’s story I now have it in hand, published and available for all to read. The end result was much different than I had anticipated. I thought it was to be a source of healing for me and my family, but it became a volume of life’s lessons that can help anyone heal from all traumas in their lives through the atonement.

This book has been written in all corners of the United States and in-between as we traveled over the course of thirteen years doing firesides and concerts.  I met many people who influenced me, by their own struggles, to emphasize the importance of knowing the Savior and understanding the atonement. There were those who still carried negative feelings toward Emma, but left our firesides healed, carrying a better understanding of Joseph’s widow, and why she stayed in Nauvoo.

I knew I would have to include Emma’s story in my book to help people understand the importance of holding a state of love in any situation, not judging those whose situation you have no way of knowing, and letting go of negative feelings concerning events you do not understand. The road to forgiveness, coping, unity, conversion, compassion, letting go, moving forward, the atonement and opening your heart to the pure love of Christ can all be found in my new book, Rising Hills and Sinking Valleys. The reader will also come to know the Smith family in a manner that has never been opened before. This work of love has been accomplished through many miracles and many trials. I have opened up my own soul and the lives of my predecessors in hopes that all families can heal and unite.

What were the real reasons that kept Emma Smith from migrating West with the main body of the Saints after her husband was murdered? What became of the children and why was Joseph’s posterity estranged from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for so many generations? One descendant, and convert to the LDS Church, shares her story, opening the door of understanding that has been lacking since 1844.

Born in Maryville Tennessee in 1962, to Joseph and Sue Smith, Kimberly Jo Smith did not learn until age 12 that she had a great-great grand father named Joseph Smith, Jr. who built a church. That revelation set Kimberly on a journey that would reveal to her an ancestry she had never known and a family that had been sorely broken.

Kimberly Jo Smith uses her love of writing music and stories to expound upon the importance of family and in helping to bridge the inter-generational chasm formed between the Smith posterity and the millions of Latter-day Saints who hold her ancestor in grateful honor.

Reviews:
“A remarkably honest and forthright look into the heart and soul of her ancestors, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma… a recipe for overcoming an obstacle that might stand in the way of strengthening ties of love with the human family.”

                                                                                                               — Gracia M.

“This book is the first opportunity that the majority of LDS Church members will have to understand the family over which Emma presided after Joseph’s death.”

— Legrand Baker
author of Murder of the Mormon Prophet