The indication that the information about the visit of the Savior was “noised abroad…before it was yet dark” further suggests that some of the events listed were not litearally accurate in their description of all participating. As indicated, several of the separate events could have taken the entire time. In the near equatorial land of the Book of Mormon, days and nights are relatively consistently twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night. In the pre-electric world, night and darkness fell quickly, and more encompassingly that we are used to.
What this verse does tell us is that this was such an exciting experience that it needed to be shared. Beyond this, however, it reminds us that there were kin relations who had been out in their fields on the day the Atoning Messiah appeared in the city center of Bountiful. To whom would we tell such news?
Of course we would tell anyone we met, but whom might we meet? First, we would not be likely to meet any of our enemies, as we would have placed some distance between them and us. We certainly would not go out of our way to give the message to anyone who might first kill us. As we go to our homes outside of the city into the fields, whom would we meet? We would not meet all that many people, as the dwellings might be scattered about in the fields. What we must do, therefore, is go out of our way to tell someone, and the people to whom we are closest are kin. In the ancient world there might be some friendships, but bonds of kinship were much stronger. Thus we may be certain that those who received the message that night were family members who had not happened to “go to town” on that most special of all days.
Having heard the most wonderful gospel, the people went to make sure that their family received it.