Don’t ever underestimate your work as a Visiting Teacher, or in this case a Relief Society Magazine representative.

Before 1970, The Relief Society Magazine, when purchased for $1 per year, gave you membership into the Relief Society. Sisters were called to be representatives, and asked to get everyone to subscribe to the magazine. There was often competition to get 100% of your list to subscribe.

On October 4, 1956, the Assistant Manager of Deseret News Press, Thomas S. Monson, spoke to the Magazine Representatives, at the Annual General Relief Society Conference.

I approach the responsibility of addressing this large gathering of Relief Society magazine representatives humbly. It is important that we be dedicated, that we accept the callings given us, that we strive for perfection in our performance.

Placing myself in the position of a sales representative for The Relief Society Magazine, I have tried to note a few principles, which I believe, would help me perform my assignment more successfully. These principles comprise, what I call, a “Be Chart for Successful Selling of The Relief Society Magazine.”

To Be Informed is the first principle on our chart for successful selling. We must be informed regarding all phases of our product.

We must be intimately acquainted with the contents of the Magazine and the varied uses to which its content can be put. For example, we must convince our sisters that by reading the editorials and historical items in the Magazine, they will be better informed. We should show them that by reading the lesson material they will be in a position to participate more intelligently in their class discussions. By using the recipes found in the Magazine, they will be better cooks.

In short, we can say to our potential subscribers: “If you would be a better cook, know the progress of Relief Society work, be prepared for your lessons, you can realize these objectives by simply subscribing to and reading your Relief Society Magazine.”

Be Organized is our second principle. We should organize our time so that a selected period can be devoted to making our visits to the homes. When we make our visits, we should be prepared with all of the necessary materials.

Be Friendly and carry a smile always. It is much easier to be convincing when we are friendly and happy to see our fellow members. We must never use harsh methods or force others to subscribe against their will. Instead, friendly persuasion must always be our selling technique.

Be Enthusiastic in our work. “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm,” Ralph Waldo Emerson once observed. We note in the business world that after a salesman makes a successful call, it is much simpler for him to convince the second customer. In short, when a sale is completed, we naturally become enthusiastic, and this opens the way for the second sale.

Be Humble in your work. Realize that you are the Lord’s emissary, and that you should carry his spirit in all your endeavors. The Prophet Joseph Smith offered this admonition:

And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble…(D&C 12:8).

Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers (D&C 112:10).

After you have succeeded in your work, remember to give the Lord the credit for your accomplishments.

Be Prayerful, always! Never make your visits without first calling upon the Lord for his divine assistance. Your assignment is important, and it requires inspiration from on high. Ask the Lord to bless you, and also to bless and to touch the hearts of the sisters that you visit.

Several years ago, a striking example of the efficacy of prayer came forcibly to my attention. Our ward Relief Society magazine representative was a little Scotch sister, Elizabeth Keachie, who was most devoted to her assignment. She had determined to visit every home in the ward to explain the benefits enjoyed by subscribing to the Relief Society Magazine. Each day before making her visits, she would kneel in prayer and ask her Heavenly Father to guide her activities.

After many weeks she completed her house-to-house campaign with the single exception of the homes on a remote street that lay in an industrialized area adjacent to the railroad tracks. Sister Keachie hesitated visiting this area alone, and therefore she requested her visiting teaching companion, Alice Johnson, to join her.

Sister Johnson commented that there were only one or two homes at best on the street and that no member of the Church resided in any of them. But Sister Keachie was determined to complete her task, and so they started down the uninviting street.

Visits to the two homes yielded nothing, but as they turned to leave, Sister Keachie noted a curtain at the window of a small garage located down a muddy alleyway behind one of the buildings. She persuaded her companion to visit this humble garage with her. They knocked at the door, and an elderly gentleman, ninety-three years of age, greeted them.

They explained the purpose of their visit and the benefits derived from subscribing to The Relief Society Magazine. The old gentleman talked to them for an hour and finally subscribed. He also asked them if they would return each month and talk to him about the Church. After securing permission from the ward Relief Society presidency, they added this small abode to their own regular visiting teaching district.

The months went by, and then the old gentleman started to attend Priesthood meeting. Eventually, he was advanced in the Priesthood. After about a year, he was ordained an elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood and applied for a temple recommend. He stated that his wife had died many years before and that he wanted to be sealed to her for the eternities to come. He also confided in me, as his bishop, that he had made her a promise many years ago that he would go to the temple and perform this important work.

The Sunday after he had completed his work in the temple, he stood up and bore his testimony in fast meeting. He paid tribute to Sister Keachie and Sister Johnson, the patient sisters of the Relief Society, for visiting him so faithfully, and then he praised The Relief Society Magazine and told of its importance in assisting him to build his testimony.

Ninety-four year-old Brother Ringwood died within six months of this meeting. I recalled this experience at his funeral service; and I am certain that the tears, which filled the eyes of Sister Keachie, and Sister Johnson, were tears of gratitude for having faithfully performed their labors in a pleasing manner before the Lord.

You see, Sister Keachie was informed; she was organized, friendly, enthusiastic, humble, and prayerful, and because she followed these principles, she was successful! May we all be successful in our callings.