CONFERENCE FEVER

Ted Gibbons relates the following story from Jeffrey R Holland which I think we can all learn from:

"I was recently in Vavau, Tonga. It is a little island which is 1-1 1/2 hours away from Nuku Alofa by plane and 24 hours away by boat.  By boat is the worst trip that can be made.  When the Area Conference was announced for Tonga, it was determined that only one boat would be available for the saints from Vavau.  The boat held 150 people.  If you stuffed bodies into every possible corner of the ship, you could get close to 300 people.  EIGHT HUNDRED Tongans jammed onto that boat and stood up for 24 hours without sleep, without food, without drink, without anything - because they knew that a prophet of God was going to be in their islands and they were not going to miss him for anything in the world. Do you want to go to conference that badly?  Do you care that the prophet of God is speaking in the neighbourhood? Do you care enough to flip on the television set, a radio, or to come to a building to watch a priesthood meeting?  Eight hundred people stood up for 24 hours to get to conference... "The President of the Church is here" they said.  "That's our prophet and we may not see him again soon". And they came. ("Remembered and Nourished by the Word of God", Jeffrey R. Holland, BYU, Sept 26, 1976)

Ted Gibbons goes on to say that 'an additional element from this event came to light when I shared this story with a ward in my stake.  Members of the ward who were from Tonga came forward after the meeting to tell me that they were in Vavau when the Area Conference occurred.  They told me that as the boat pulled away from the dock, headed for Nuku 'Alofa, there were church members jumping in the water and swimming to the boat, still trying to find a place on the vessel.  They also told me that a second boat came just after the first had departed and took a much smaller group in substantial comfort to the Area Conference'.  (Ted Gibbons, D&C Lesson 37)

What an amazing story.  I am hoping to catch conference fever this month.  I want to be numbered among those on judgment day who were eager to hear the words of the prophets.