"While the bishop is responsible to help ward members meet immediate needs, the priesthood quorums and the Relief Society have the responsibility to help members resolve long-term needs. . . . They teach members to live providently, provide for themselves and their families, and care for others. They direct priesthood quorum and Relief Society members in teaching new skills to the needy and helping them to become self-reliant. They are assisted in these duties by home teachers and visiting teachers" Providing in the Lord's Way: A Leader's Guide to Welfare [welfare handbook, 1990], 15).

"The Melchizedek Priesthood quorum leader can help the head of the household by teaching the principles of welfare—how to love, to give service, to recognize what his stewardship is, to work honestly and diligently for his family and for others, and to consecrate his time and talents to the building up of the kingdom of God. He can train the home teachers on how they can get to know the families and be sensitive to their needs. When a member has special needs, the president can work with the bishop and other quorum members to see that those needs are met in a confidential and loving manner.

"The quorum meeting begins to fill its purpose when it meets the needs of the members. It is there they can be taught how to develop the skills in all areas of personal and family preparedness. . . .

"So, priesthood and Relief Society, working together, bring the family to a realization that personal and family preparedness is living the gospel" (L. Tom Perry, "The Need to Teach Personal and Family Preparedness," Ensign, May 1981, 88).

"I am satisfied, my brethren, that there is enough of expertise, of knowledge, of strength, of concern in every priesthood quorum to assist the troubled members of that quorum if these resources are properly administered" (Gordon B. Hinckley, "Welfare Responsibilities of the Priesthood Quorums," Ensign, Nov. 1977, 85-86).

"When I received the challenge [to develop the Church Welfare Program] after [a] session with the First Presidency, I was bewildered. My experience was limited to one stake. . . . I was now being asked to study the statistics amassed by the First Presidency and to suggest some beginning steps, and I was to stretch my thinking over the whole Church. And here I was, so limited in experience. How in the world was I to encompass the whole Church knowing so little as I did about only my small area where I had lived and been raised?

"I sought the Lord, and besides what Brother Romney has said, there was something that came to me. My first thought was, 'What kind of an organization will we have to have, to do this?' And I began to think of setting up something that was like the world has set it up, and I received one of the most fundamental testimonies of the value of the priesthood of this Church. It was as though the Lord had said to me: 'Look, son. You don't need any other organization. I have given you the greatest organization there is on the face of the earth. Nothing is greater than the priesthood organization. All in the world you need to do is to put the priesthood to work. That's all' " (Harold B. Lee, address delivered at the Welfare Agricultural Meeting, Oct. 3, 1970, 20).

"The quorum is an essential part of the Lord's plan for rendering mutual aid. No other organization in the world is so effectively organized into working groups as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . What a mighty force for good these quorums would be if the spiritual welfare of each member and his obligation to the Church were considered the special duty of each presiding officer! That is a possibility of achievement" (David O. McKay, in Conference Report, Oct. 1951, 9).

"The priesthood quorums in their extending of relief have not the obligation prescribed to the bishop. But the relationship of the priesthood, [and] the spirit of lofty unselfish brotherhood which it carries with it, do require that they individually and as quorums exert their utmost means of power to rehabilitate, spiritually and temporally, their erring and unfortunate brethren. In his temporal administrations, the bishop looks at every needy person as a temporary problem, caring for them until they can help themselves; the priesthood must look at their needy brethren as a continuing problem until not only his temporal needs are met, but his spiritual ones also" (J. Reuben Clark, as quoted by Gordon B. Hinckley, in "Welfare Responsibilities of the Priesthood Quorums," Ensign, Nov. 1977, 85).

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