“Members Invited to Share the Gospel through Magazine Subscriptions,” Liahona, Dec. 2012, 74–75
Members Invited to Share the Gospel through Magazine Subscriptions
As the Church’s Materials Management supervisor for Thailand, Kanogwan Wongwiraphab regularly handles requests from members for Church equipment and supplies such as sacred clothing and LDS publications.
But she was surprised one day when a woman visited her office to renew her Church magazines subscription. In that part of the world, members normally renew their subscriptions through their unit’s magazine representative. The woman, however, explained she did not have a ward representative. She was Buddhist and had learned about the Church magazines when a friend who was a member of the Church gifted a subscription to her.
“She started to tell me wonderful things about the Church magazines and how valuable they are to her children,” Sister Wongwiraphab wrote. “When her children came back from school and saw the magazines, they were so excited, and they read and finished them quickly.”
The woman praised the magazines for their “great worth” and for teaching her children good morals and vocabulary. She was so impressed she renewed her own subscription and gifted subscriptions to her coworkers so their children could also benefit.
“Even nonmembers can feel and see the value [of the magazines], and [they] want to share it with others,” Sister Wongwiraphab wrote.
Church leaders have consistently encouraged members of the Church to read the Church magazines and share them with others.
Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has highlighted the far-reaching benefits of the magazines. “The good spirit in these magazines will help fill your homes with warmth, love, and the strength of the gospel,” he said (“The Importance of the Family,” Liahona, May 2003, 42).
Elder Craig A. Cardon of the Seventy serves as Assistant Executive Director in the Priesthood Department and Editor of the Church magazines, and he sees the value they hold for every individual.
“Church magazines are an important segment of the authoritative voice of the Church through which prophetic counsel from the Lord is made available to all of our Father’s children of all ages on matters pertinent in today’s world,” he said. “Each month, interesting and engaging articles address circumstances common to all people throughout the earth, whether in or out of the Church. All earnest seekers of truth are greatly benefited by the inspired teachings and guidance found therein.”
If every subscriber of the Church magazines were to send a gift subscription to a nonmember friend or relative, nearly 1.7 million new subscribers would be brought into a friendly, monthly contact with the Church.
Through the Church’s Online Store—store.lds.org—individuals can quickly and easily subscribe to one or more of the magazines or gift a subscription of the magazines to a family member or friend. The Friend, the New Era, and the Ensign are available in English only, while the Liahona, which contains articles concurrently printed in the three English-only magazines, is available in dozens of languages.
One bishop in Arizona’s Peoria Stake has found gifting a yearlong subscription of the Friend to children in his ward to be an effective way to help surround them with the words of living prophets and apostles.
Penélope B. Woodward of Texas, USA, sent a gift subscription of the Liahona to her cousin, as well as to a friend and teacher in another country.
“I hope that it will help [my cousin] learn the importance of making and keeping covenants,” she wrote. She continued, saying that the gift subscription is a way of “preparing the ground for [my friend] to one day hear and accept the restored gospel.”
To order or gift a subscription, go to store.lds.org. Magazine ordering information is on the left side of the page. The online ordering process walks individuals through renewals, new subscriptions, and gift subscriptions.
Store.lds.org is available in Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Those who don’t speak those languages or who don’t have Internet access can order or gift magazines by contacting or visiting Church distribution centers, which are located in many countries.
Members are encouraged to share the gospel with nonmember friends and family of all ages, religions, and backgrounds through gift subscriptions to the Church magazines.
Photograph by Rick Wallace