“Chapter 14: Words of Hope and Consolation at the Time of Death,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, (2007),171–81

Link to lesson.

This lesson is about death and overcoming the grief we experience in facing the death of loved ones.  Joseph lost an unbelievable number of loved ones in his life.  He consoled himself and those around him with detailed descriptions of his visions of the afterlife and the resurrection.

A poignant quote from him is this one: “More painful to me are the thoughts of annihilation than death. If I have no expectation of seeing my father, mother, brothers, sisters and friends again, my heart would burst in a moment, and I should go down to my grave. The expectation of seeing my friends in the morning of the resurrection cheers my soul and makes me bear up against the evils of life. It is like their taking a long journey, and on their return we meet them with increased joy. … "

One might argue that the pain and agony of losing loved ones is enough to drive one to believe in God, not the opposite, for only by believing in God and in an afterlife and a resurrection can one overcome the incredible agony of losing a child.  And one thing Joseph did was think about and ponder and pray about the feelings of those who did lose children, and his heart was obviously particularly soft towards mothers who lose children: 

“A question may be asked—‘Will mothers have their children in eternity?’ Yes! Yes! Mothers, you shall have your children; for they shall have eternal life, for their debt is paid.”6

“Children … must rise just as they died; we can there hail our lovely infants with the same glory—the same loveliness in the celestial glory.”7

President Joseph F. Smith, the sixth President of the Church, reported: “Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: ‘You will have the joy, the pleasure and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after its resurrection, until it reaches the full stature of its spirit.’ … "

These concepts may strike some as overly solicitous, as trying too hard to console the grief of a woman who lost an infant.  And yet there is a feeling of rightness in them, a sense that these concepts make sense and ring true and make the world right and a better place.  These are the sort of doctrines that one can feel are true.