Inspiring Stories
Favorite Hymns
During the persecution of the Prophet, especially when he was in hiding, he would sometimes be allowed to visit his family for an evening, and would request my father and mother to come to sing for him. They would take me with them, and when Joseph found that I could sing a part alone he requested them to bring me. We would sing his favorite hymns: “When Joseph His Brethren Beheld,” “Redeemer of Israel,” “The Spirit of God,” and several others. He would become so inspired with the spirit of the music that he would clap his hands and shout hosanna to the Lord. 1
Friendly Wrestle
Joseph dismounted from his horse and engaged in a friendly wrestle with some of the “boys,” as he called them. He often tried to get me to wrestle with him but I never would. I was a strong man as well as he was. Often when we met and shook hands he would pull me to him for a wrestle and say, slapping my shoulder with his hand, “If you are not a strong man, there is no use of putting a man upright.” 2
- Eunice B. Snow, “A Sketch of the Life of Eunice Billings Snow,” Woman’s Exponent 39, no. 2 (August 1910): 14; see also “A Sketch of the Life of Eunice Billings Snow,” Woman’s Exponent 39, no. 3 (September 1910): 22; also cited in Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, They Knew the Prophet (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1974), 152-53.
- “Autobiography of Wandle Mace,” typescript copy, BYU Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Provo, Utah, 92-93; also cited in Mark L. McConkie, Remembering Joseph, 45.
