Philip B. Lewis and Sandwich Islands Saints Receive Manifestations of the Spirit

During the Sandwich Islands Conference held in July 1854 on Oahu, the Saints experienced a profound spiritual outpouring. On July 19, 1854, the conference convened in a lanai (bowery) constructed by the Saints at Kaneohe. Throughout the proceedings, which included multiple sessions through July 25, the missionaries and native members gathered to conduct church business and share in spiritual instruction. Philip B. Lewis, serving as President of the mission, reported that the meetings were characterized by a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, which manifested through prophecy and the gift of tongues. These spiritual manifestations, including interpretations provided by elders such as Benjamin F. Johnson, William Woodbury, and Francis A. Hammond, deeply comforted the Saints regarding their various trials and sacrifices. The collective spiritual unity was so potent that it enabled the Saints to temporarily lose sight of their distance from home, causing them to forget the vast ocean that rolled between them and their loved ones in Deseret.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

On the 19th of July, the conference convened in a lanai, or bowery, which the Saints had built for the occasion at Kaneohe. The meetings continued until the 25th, and were attended by the missionaries and a large number of the native Saints. The Spirit of the Lord was poured out upon us mightily, in prophesying and revelation, through the gift of tongues, which made us forget, for a time, all our trials and sacrifices, and that the ocean rolled between us and our loved Deseret. The interpretations were given by Elders Benjamin F. Johnson, William Woodbury, and Francis A. Hammond, which were a source of great comfort and consolation to the Saints, who had been called to pass through many trials and privations for the Gospel's sake.