In his October 2021 General Conference address, Elder Alvin F. Meredith III warned against distraction. He said, “The adversary understands that distractions do not have to be bad or immoral to be effective.”
In 2007, the First Presidency released the pamphlet All is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage. In it, the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were encouraged to “prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.” That supply includes a three-month supply of food that is part of the normal, daily diet; a supply of clean drinking water; a reasonable financial reserve; and an additional supply of food that will last a long time. These supplies are so “we may care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others.”
Reviewing the talks by Elder Bednar, Bishop Waddell, and Pres. Nelson from the October 2020 General Conference shows that the focus is still the same – food, water, and savings.
Emergency preparedness – a.k.a. 72-hour kits, generators, survival equipment, etc. – is good but it can be a distraction from what our primary preparedness goals and focus should be. When someone asks “What should I do first to be prepared?” the answer should not be “Put together a 72-hour kit” as I so often hear. It should be “Start building your 3-month supply of food.” Emergency-only supplies are good to have when the prophesied natural disasters of the last days come but they are designed for a short-term problem of days or weeks. Emergency-only supplies are often difficult to share, too, such as a 72-hour kit which is a survival kit for 3 days for one person. The direction in the 2007 pamphlet, if followed, will sustain you, and others, for much longer.
There is nothing wrong with having emergency preparedness supplies. In fact, they are encouraged in the Area Temporal Preparedness Guides. Just don’t let them distract you from the storage of food, water, and essential non-food items.
