Preparedness: Temporal

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  Now I think the time is coming when there will be more distresses, when there may be more tornadoes and more floods, as we had up in the Portland area, more earthquakes as we had down in California, and elsewhere. I think they will be increasing probably as we come nearer to the end, and so we must be prepared for this. Another thing, which has already been mentioned, is that of being more generous with our fast offerings. We do not have projects in all the world, as we are expanding so rapidly in the overseas areas. We haven’t established farms and other projects there as we have here, but there is no reason why the latest organized branch cannot take care of itself in large measure if we pay our fast offerings. Sometimes we have been a bit penurious and figured that we had for breakfast one egg and that cost so many cents and then we give that to the Lord. I think that when we are affluent, as many of us are, that we ought to be very, very generous. I don’t know if you receive them, but every week, every mail, I receive two or three or a dozen applications for charity, from all over the world saying: “Please send us money to help these poor people that are starving and homeless.” Now then our work should go to our own people first, of course, and I have recently made up my mind. I just throw them into a pile and think, “Well, there is another $5.00 that could go to the fast offerings.” I think we should be very generous and give, instead of the amount we saved by our two meals of fasting, perhaps much, much more—ten times more where we are in a position to do it. I know there are some who couldn’t. Something was said about gardens and about trees. I should say that in our little yard Sister Kimball is our farmer, and she nearly feeds us through the year from that little yard in the back. We have carrots, and we have apricots, and we have applesauce, and we have other things that help. Then she plants beans along the grillwork of our back porch, down among the roses, and they climb up over all this grillwork. I joke with her a lot of times about having done that so she can sit in her rocking chair and pick the beans, but we just almost live on beans and it is good food, very good food. The little gardens and the few trees are very valuable. I remember when the sisters used to say, “Well, but we could buy it at the store a lot cheaper than we can put it up.” But that isn’t quite the answer, is it, Sister Spafford? Because there will come a time when there isn’t a store. I remember long years ago that I asked a very prominent grocer who had a chain of grocery stores, “How long would your supply of groceries last if you did not have trucks to bring in new supplies?” And he said, “Maybe we could stretch it out two weeks from our storehouses and from our supplies.” People could get awfully hungry after two weeks were over. Spencer W. Kimball, in Conference Report, Apr. 1974, 184-185. Credit: Amanda Lea

  President Spencer W. Kimball

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  • Preparedness: Temporal

  21 Oct 2026