Take a sad song and make it better.

People who inspire me:

These are a few people whose lives, words, and values have inspired me to be a better person and become the girl I want to be.

While we're here, do you see the man at the very end of this list? That is Joseph Smith Jr.

Today, 167 years ago, Joseph Smith was confined in Carthage Jail, along with John Taylor and Willard Richards, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his brother, Hyrum Smith. This day, an angry mob made up of local militia members overran the jail, ran up the stairs and into the room where the four men were imprisoned. There, they shot Hyrum to the floor, and Joseph out a two-story window. Both of these men died martyrs that day. They defended the truth to the very, very end. Jeffrey R. Holland {who is also up on my list} once said in the October 2009 general conference:

"As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness. In this their greatest and last hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation, on a book (and by implication, a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth? Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be houseless, friendless, and homeless, and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prarie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live, declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book, which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time. They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

I stand with Jeffrey R. Holland and his powerful testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith is a true prophet. Despite the grief he was given then, and continues to be given now, Joseph Smith will be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom for his work, his faith, his strength, and his sacrifice.

{Hey Jude by The Beatles}