At 4 a.m., 86-year-old Joseph Melvin Bitter reaches for his alarm, arises from bed, and prepares for another day at work. Because of glaucoma, he spends an hour taking care of his eyes, painstakingly inserting drops that require him to close his eyes each time until the medicine has had a chance to work. He is also slowed down by asthma, which developed while he served a mission in the 1930s.

At 5:25 a.m., he leaves his Kaysville, Utah, home and walks to the bus stop 15 minutes away. Because he has to wait to transfer buses, it takes him a couple of hours to arrive at his job at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City. When the day is over, Brother Bitter again makes the long journey home and, once there, begins the hour-long process of caring for his eyes.

Brother Bitter spends his days at Welfare Square testing dozens of products — from soup to salsa. He tests them inside and out, ensuring that they are healthy, tasty, and nutritious. He checks the packages, the wrapping paper, the taste, the temperature, the toughness. He ensures there are no harmful bacteria that could make a child ill. He ensures that the products at Welfare Square — "the finest products money can't buy" — are of the highest quality. For these products will end up in the homes of those in need.

"It's all about integrity," he says.

Integrity is something Brother Bitter knows about. His work is ensuring that what is on the inside of products is pure, good and wholesome. Outside of work, he does much the same thing. He and his wife, Nelma, talk to their nine children, 67 grandchildren, and 42 great-grandchildren about integrity all the time.

"Be honorable," he tells them. "Give service, be honest, live the commandments, and keep the covenants you make, and you can't help but be successful."

Although he and his wife have lived through their share of sorrowful experiences, on the whole, life for the Bitters has been very sweet.

Brother Bitter feels like his life has turned out pretty well. "My greatest goal now," he says, "is to endure to the end. I'm approaching the summit, and I can tell I'm getting closer. I just want to finish the race well."

And one of the ways he does that is by ensuring integrity in the products in the bishops' storehouse system, in himself, and by encouraging it in his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.