Worth the Voyage
From “Prophets, Seers, and Revelators,” by Elder Vaiangina Sikahema · Saturday morning session, October 2026 General Conference
The big idea
Living apostles and prophets are a gift from the Savior that was missing from the earth for centuries, and we honor that gift by refusing to treat their words as a light thing.
Objective
Learners will feel fresh gratitude for living prophets, seers, and revelators and will choose one specific way to give their words more weight this week.
Before you teach
- Read Elder Sikahema’s talk, especially the story of his grandparents’ voyage (the first eleven paragraphs).
- Mark Amos 8:11–12, Amos 3:7, Doctrine and Covenants 90:5 and Doctrine and Covenants 1:38.
- Bring paper and pens for silent writing.
- Write on the board: 16 hours. Two and a half days. One tap.
- Be aware that the story includes the death of a baby. Someone in the room may carry a similar loss; tell it simply and reverently.
Lesson plan
Thirty minutes in 5 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.
What would you cross an ocean for?
- Begin with prayer. If you wish, sing the hymn listed under music.
- Ask the first question below and let learners answer in pairs for one minute. Take two or three answers aloud.
- Point to the board. Explain that today’s talk tells of a family for whom hearing an Apostle cost two and a half days at sea and far more, while for us it usually costs one tap on a phone.
- Say that Elder Sikahema of the Seventy told this story about his own grandparents.
- What is the greatest effort you have ever made to be in the room with someone or to hear something in person? Why was it worth it to you?
The Wolfgramms’ voyage
- Retell the story in your own words, or have three readers share the paragraphs that tell it. Keep to the details: in 1947 Sione and Salote Wolfgramm, poor farmers serving a mission on the isolated island of Niuatoputapu in Tonga, set out with their three small children to reach Elder Matthew Cowley, an Apostle. Only two Apostles had ever visited Tonga before.
- Continue: a voyage of 16 hours to their home island of Vava‘u became two and a half days in a storm. Their nine-month-old son, Vilimanulea, died of exposure. Within two days they buried him and continued their voyage.
- Read the first two key quotes aloud, slowly. Allow a moment of quiet.
- Ask the questions below. Do not hurry the silence after the first one.
- What do you feel as you picture them getting back on the boat?
- According to Elder Sikahema, what did his grandparents understand about an Apostle that made them keep sailing?
Famine and feast
- Divide into small groups. Give half the groups Amos 8:11–12 and the other half Amos 3:7. Ask each group to read its passage and agree on one sentence: what does this teach about why prophets matter?
- Have a spokesperson from each side report. Write the two sentences side by side on the board under the words Famine and Feast.
- Explain what Elder Sikahema taught: for centuries after the ancient apostles died there was no revelation to prophets, and reformers yearned for prophetic voices but could not find them, until the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith.
- Read President Holland’s question and answer, which Elder Sikahema quoted (see aligned quotes). Ask the question below.
- When has the word of the Lord through a living prophet or apostle reached you at a time you were hungry for it?
A light thing, or a weighty one
- Read Doctrine and Covenants 90:5 together. Then read the key quote about cell phones.
- Give each person paper. Invite three minutes of silent writing on the two prompts below. Tell them no one will collect it.
- Invite a few who are willing to share one thing they wrote for the second prompt. List their ideas on the board.
- Read the speaker’s invitation word for word (see invitations). Then read President Oaks’s invitation from the close of this conference (see aligned quotes) and note how the two fit together.
- Where has the ease of hearing prophets made me casual about what they say?
- What would it look like, in my real week, to hold their words as a weighty thing?
Choose, and trust His word
- Read Doctrine and Covenants 1:38. Point out the promise in it that the speaker quoted: the Lord’s word will all be fulfilled, whether it comes by His own voice or by the voice of His servants.
- As a check for understanding, ask each person to finish this sentence on their paper: Holding the words of prophets as a weighty thing means that this week I will…
- Invite them to turn to a neighbor and say their sentence aloud.
- Bear your testimony of the Savior and of His living prophets, seers, and revelators, as Elder Sikahema did.
- Tell the class that next week you will begin by asking two or three people what they did and what they noticed. Write yourself a reminder so that you do.
Key passages from the talk
“Grieving with empty arms, my grandparents got back on the boat, their mission not yet complete.”
“They sailed to sit at the feet of an Apostle, who would teach them their duty so they could bless others on their island with the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“I suspect the Lord knew that even when we would have these devices (cell phones) to easily see and hear His anointed servants, many of us would still take them for granted.”
“What a blessing it is to live in a time when apostles and prophets are on the earth.”
The speaker’s direct invitation
“let us not be guilty of holding ‘the oracles of God … as a light thing’”
Scriptures
- Amos 8:11–12 Half the small groups read it and write one sentence on what a world without prophetic revelation is like.
- Amos 3:7 The other groups read it and write one sentence on how the Lord chooses to work; compare the two sentences on the board.
- D&C 90:5 Read together before the silent writing; ask what makes a sacred thing become a light thing to us.
- D&C 1:38 Read at the close as the Lord’s assurance that the words of His servants will be fulfilled.
Other voices that agree
“Are the heavens open? Does God reveal His will to prophets and apostles as in days of old? That they are and that He does is the unflinching declaration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to all the world.”
“As the talks of this conference are published, we invite all to study and ponder them prayerfully and to act in faith on the principles they explain.”
Three things to remember
- Living apostles and prophets are a gift the world went without for centuries.
- What costs us one tap cost others an ocean; ease must not become indifference.
- The Lord’s word through His servants will all be fulfilled, so it deserves real weight in my week.
Ways to act this week
- Choose one talk from this conference by a prophet, seer, and revelator and study it this week with a pen in hand, writing down one thing to do.
- Set a fixed time and place for that study, with other apps closed, as a way of giving the words weight.
- Tell a family member or friend one sentence from a living prophet that has fed you, and why.
- In your prayers this week, thank Heavenly Father by name for living prophets and apostles.
Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.
Music
- We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet
- Come, Come, Ye Saints
Adapting the lesson
- At home: tell the story at the table, read Doctrine and Covenants 90:5, and let each person answer the second writing prompt aloud instead of on paper.
- Large class: do the Amos readings in pairs with the person beside them rather than moving into groups.
- Short on time: keep the voyage, Doctrine and Covenants 90:5 with the silent writing, and the closing choice; drop the Amos group work and simply summarize it.
This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.