The duties of leading the LDS Church weren't new to Gordon B. Hinckley when he officially became church president on April 2, 1995.

He had been filling in for his ailing predecessors for more than a decade, since he joined the First Presidency in 1981.

President Hinckley was first sustained as an Assistant to the Twelve in 1958, to the Quorum of the Twelve in October 1961 and served there until July 1981, when President Spencer W. Kimball called him as a counselor in the First Presidency.

Due to the failing health of the then-members of the First Presidency — Presidents Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney — President Hinckley became the steady voice of the First Presidency. He later served as first counselor to Presidents Ezra Taft Benson and Howard W. Hunter. He carried a heavy administrative load, particularly during the illnesses of his leaders, but he never got ahead of the president.

"When I accepted President Kimball's call to join them, I did not know exactly how I would function or fit in, and perhaps they did not at the time," President Hinckley said in an Ensign interview. "But the circumstances called for additional help, and I was more than willing to give it. I did not know whether it would be for a few days or a few months."

When he became second counselor after President Tanner's death in November 1982, President Hinckley recalled that "that was a very heavy and overwhelming responsibility."

"It was an almost terrifying load at times. Of course, I consulted with our brethren of the Twelve."

By that time, the day-to-day responsibility of the office of the First Presidency had largely fallen upon him.

"I recall that on one particular occasion getting on my knees before the Lord and asking for help in the midst of that very difficult situation. And there came into my mind those reassuring words, 'Be still and know that I am God' (D&C 101:16). I knew again that this was his work, that he would not let it fail, that all I had to do was work at it and do our very best, and that the work would move forward ... ."

He was the senior general authority at general conferences during the declining years of Presidents Kimball and Benson but always made it a point to reassure church members of the prophet's presence. His closing remarks at the April 1993 general conference were typical: