What have the Prophets Said About Being Self Sufficient?

I ask you earnestly, have you provided for your family a year’s supply of food, clothing, and where possible, fuel? The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah. President Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, November 1980, p. 33

Keep your eye on the Prophet. Being self-reliant has always been part of the Church. Statistics show that no matter what the Church does, no higher percentage than 15% have storage. We are not going to say any more, but our people are going to need to be prepared. For example, what if somebody released a virus? What if it caused a pandemic? What if that led to quarantine? What if the quarantine was enforced? The office of the Presiding Bishopric has tried to come up with a plan, but we don’t know what we could do. The responsibility lies with the head of each family. Presiding Bishop H. David Burton

We continue to encourage members to store sufficient food, clothing, and where possible, fuel for at least one year. We have not laid down an exact formula for what should be stored. However, we suggest that members concentrate on essential foods that sustain life, such as grains, legumes, cooking oil, powdered milk, salt, sugar or honey, and water. Most families can achieve and maintain this basic level of preparedness. Letter from the First Presidency, “Preparing for Emergencies,” June 24, 1988

We have a great welfare program with facilities for such things as grain storage. . . . But the best place to have some food set aside is within our homes, together with a little money in savings. The best welfare program is our own welfare program. Five or six cans of wheat in the home are better than a bushel in the welfare granary. President Gordon B. Hinckley, To Men of the Priesthood, Ensign, November 2002, p. 58

No true Latter-day Saint while physically or emotionally able will voluntarily shift the burden of his own or his family’s well-being to someone else. President Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, November 1977, p. 77

Many think the Church’s Welfare Services program was designed primarily for doomsday. This is not true. The principles of the Welfare Services program are designed to help us live providently each day and to cope successfully with serious problems as they come into our lives. Just as the [ten] virgins did not know that the bridegroom would come in the night when their lamps would be needed, we do not know when serious problems such as illness or unemployment will come into our lives. Presiding Bishop Victor L. Brown, General Conference, October. 2, 1982; Church News, May 29, 1999, p. 14

Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion. President Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, November 1980, p. 34

In 1937, President J. Reuben Clark Jr. counseled Church members: “Live within your means. Get out of debt. Keep out of debt. Lay by for a rainy day which has always come and will come again. Practice and increase your habits of thrift, industry, economy, frugality.” (Conference Report, October 1937, p. 107) Church News, June 5, 1999, p. 5

“Someone proposed a serious question to me a few years ago by asking, ‘What is the most important item to have stored in your year’s supply?’ My response was seriously given – personal righteousness. It is important for us to have, as we have been counseled, a year’s supply of food and clothing and, where possible, fuel. We have also been counseled that we should have a reserve of cash to meet emergencies and to carry adequate health, home and life insurance. Personal and family preparedness, however, is much broader than these tangibles. It must include proper attitudes, a willingness to forego luxuries, prayerful consideration of all major purchases, and learning to live within our means.” President Marion G. Romney, Ensign, April 7, 1981, p. 6; Church News, June 5, 1999, p. 5

“Church teachings regarding personal and family preparedness do not stem from any specific event, including Y2K concerns,” states a recent news release issued by the Church Public Affairs Department. “Predictions of disaster, famine, flood, and earthquake have come and gone and will continue to do so, but the common-sense admonitions of Church leaders to prepare for times of adversity and to be self-reliant remain unchanged. The words of Brigham Young, ‘Learn to sustain yourselves, lay up grain and flour, and save it for a day of scarcity,’ are as applicable today as they were more than 130 years ago.” Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 291.)

We need to make both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events prophesied at the time of the Second Coming. And the preparation most likely to be neglected is the one less visible and more difficult – the spiritual. A 72-hour kit of temporal supplies may prove valuable for earthly challenges, but, as the foolish virgins learned to their sorrow, a 24-hour kit of spiritual preparation is of greater and more enduring value.Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, May 2004, p. 9

We’re living in the latter days. We’re living in the days the prophets have told about from the time of Enoch to the present day. We are living in the era just preceding the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told to so prepare and live that we can be . . . independent of every other creature beneath the celestial kingdom. That is what we are to do. President Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1975, pp. 165-66; see D&C 78:14

The Lord said that it is important for the Church to “stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world” (D&C 78:14). Members of the Church are also counseled to be independent. Independence means many things. It means being free of drugs that addict, habits that bind, and diseases that curse. It also means being free of personal debt and of the interest and carrying charges required by debt the world over.Elder James E. Faust, Ensign, May 1986, p. 21

Unrestricted by programs and projects, bricks and mortar, the Lord’s real storehouse is needed in the homes and hearts of His people. As the members of the church follow the counsel to become self-reliant, they represent an immense pool of resources, knowledge, skills, and charity available to help one another. (See D&C 78:3) Elder Robert D. Hales, Ensign, May 1986, p. 29

As long as I can remember we have been taught to prepare for the future and obtain a year’s supply of necessities. I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this council. I believe the time to disregard this council is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness. Elder L. Tom Perry, General Conference, October 1995

We have been instructed for years to follow at least four requirements in preparing for that which is to come. First, gain an adequate education. . . . Second, live strictly within your income and save something for a rainy day. . . . Third, avoid excessive debt. . . . Fourth, acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life. Elder L. Tom Perry, “If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear,” Ensign, November 1995, p. 36;Visiting Teaching Message, Ensign, January 2003, p. 67

You show me a people who “have a mind to work,” to keep out of the bondage of indebtedness, and to work unitedly together in an unselfish service to attain a great objective, and I’ll show you a people who have achieved the greatest possible security in the world of men and material things. Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Harold B. Lee p. 172

To every man [and woman] there comes . . . that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a special thing unique to him and fitted to his talent. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour. Be ready when that day comes. Be strong. Always be clean. . . . I testify that the call in every age – and especially our age – is Joshua’s call: “Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” (Winston Churchill)Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, November 2000, p. 40

This is the day of our mortal probation. We might compare our eternal journey to a race of three laps around the track. We have completed the first lap successfully and have made wonderful progress. We have started on the second lap. Can you imagine a world-class runner stopping along the track at this point to pick flowers or chase a rabbit that crossed his path? Yet this is what we are doing when we occupy our time with worldly pursuits that do not move us closer to the third lap toward eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God. (See D&C 14:7) Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, The Time to Prepare, Ensign, May 1998, p. 14

It is just as consistent to expect that the Lord will supply us with fruit when we do not plant the trees; or that when we do not plow and sow and are saved the labor of harvesting, we should cry to the Lord to save us from want, as to ask him to save us from the consequences of our own folly, disobedience and waste.Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 293

You do not need to go into debt to obtain a year’s supply. Plan to build up your food supply just as you would a savings account. Save a little for storage each paycheck. Can or bottle fruit and vegetables from your gardens and orchards. Learn how to preserve food through drying and possibly freezing. Make your storage a part of your budget. Store seeds and have sufficient tools on hand to do the job. We urge you to do this prayerfully and do it now. I speak with a feeling of great urgency. President Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, November 1980, p. 33

If you have paid your debts, if you have a reserve, even though it be small, then should storms howl about your head, you will have shelter for your wives and children and peace in your hearts. President Gordon B. Hinckley, October 1998 General Conference Priesthood Session

What we will need in our day of testing is a spiritual preparation. It is to have developed faith in Jesus Christ so powerful that we can pass the test of life upon which everything for us in eternity depends. That test is part of the purpose God had for us in the Creation. President Henry B. Eyring, “Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady,” Ensign, November 2005, p. 37

The same principle self-reliance – has application to the spiritual and to the emotional. We have been taught to store a year’s supply of food, clothing, and, if possible, fuel – at home. There has been no attempt to set up storerooms in every chapel. We know that in the crunch our members may not be able to get to the chapel for supplies. Can we not see that the same principle applies to inspiration and revelation, the solving of problems, to counsel, and to guidance? We need to have a source of it stored in every home, not just in the bishop’s office. If we do not do that, we are quite as threatened spiritually as we should be were we to assume that the Church should supply all material needs. Elder Boyd K. Packer, “Solving Emotional Problems in the Lord’s Own Way,” Ensign, May 1978, p. 91