One of the most important requirements for maintaining a healthy herd of sacrament programs is consistency of the program preparer. Obviously, sometimes the person responsible gets sick, in which case someone else will prepare the sacrament program for a week. While this does inevitably cause a loss of health in the sacrament program herd, if the herd is healthy it can recover fairly quickly, usually after a single week. If, however, the person normally responsible for the sacrament programs is gone for two or more weeks then the herd really suffers. In most cases they will lose the ability to predict the speakers in sacrament meeting for about 6 months. In bad cases they can even lose the ability to be printed for several months. That’s why you have probably noticed that sacrament programs are less effective after a “regime change,” and also why the first presidency recommends that each member have a 6-month stockpile of sacrament programs in unstable parts of the world. Luckily, such extended absences never happen in well-run wards with responsible ward clerks so it’s not something members of our ward need to worry about.