While recollecting events during the South Pacific Area Conference, February-March 1976, Russell M. Nelson recalled the following about President Kimball and his wife which sheds light onto their characters:
From New Zealand we went to Fiji, for
the area conference in Suva. The auditorium was so hot! I’m sure it was over
100 degrees. Sister Kimball was really very ill, and yet she sat on the front row
like a soldier in spite of her fever and misery. She was anxious to give
visible, tangible evidence of support for her husband and for the cause. More
than a thousand people were present, many of whom had come from the remote
islands of the Fijian group and from island chains even beyond, such as the
Gilbert Island.
After the meeting was over, Brother Haycock
and I approached President Kimball with the intention of ushering him immediately
to the car that was waiting outside to transport him and Sister Kimball to the
hotel as expeditiously as possible. But with the power of Samsom, President
Kimball pushed Brother Haycock and me aside and broke into the crowd of a
thousand people who were there, and he proceeded to shake hands with every one
of them. He seemed to sense my concern for his physical well-being, but he
replied later that those people had come by boat and canoe to be in that
meeting and see the prophet, and he wasn’t going to let a single one of them leave
without shaking hands with him if it was their desire to do so. This is just
one more example of President Kimball’s habit of placing his thoughtful concern
for the Saints above any personal considerations. (Russell M. Nelson, From
Heart to Heart: An Autobiography [Salt Lake City: Quality Press, Inc.,
1979], 181)
