Senator's bear testimony at Congress

So my brother sent me the coolest email EVER! Here is some of the text from the email, but if you are interested in seeing the amazing pictures that go with it, I'll forward it to you; just leave a comment with your email address.


If you had happened into the Cannon House Office Building on Washington DC’s Capitol Hill a few days before Christmas, you would have heard something amazing and most unusual.

There, echoing down the halls and reverberating up the marbled stairs of the rotunda, wafting into the offices where laws are formulated and the heavy lifting of government is done, were the booming voices of missionaries, singing at the top of their lungs, “We are all enlisted ‘til the conflict is o’er. Happy are we. Happy are
we.”

The missionaries didn’t mean to be singing for all to hear, but the doors were flung open to the elegant Cannon Caucus Room, and they were gathered for what most surely would be the most unusual Christmas gathering of missionaries held this year. Most
mission Christmas gatherings are held in chapels and cultural halls, and an
inspirational speaker may be chosen to address the elders and sisters.

They are warm and uplifting gatherings and the missionaries anticipate them for
many weeks. But taking advantage of their location in the Washington DC South Mission, President and Sister Mark and Karyn Albright held their Christmas gathering this year in this House office building and, instead of having an inspirational speaker or two, the LDS members of Congress came to address the missionaries and bear their testimonies.

Bill and Tammy Nixon, who sponsored the event, said that no matter how pressed the senators and congressmen were in their schedules, they all were pleased and eager to come to address the missionaries at Christmas time. “They wanted to come,” said President Nixon, who presides over the Mount Vernon Stake.

Slipping in to address the missionaries, between votes on the floor of Congress, were Senators Orrin Hatch (UT), Robert Bennett (UT) , Harry Reid (NV), and Representatives Buck McKeon (CA), Wally Herger (CA) , Jason Chaffetz (UT), Rob Bishop (UT), Jeff Flake (AZ); and Dean Heller (NV). Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, the delegate from American Samoa, emceed the program, including singing a Polynesian version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with his own ukulele accompaniment.

The missionaries were given models of powerful people in the very highest
seat of government, who nonetheless, put their testimonies and their commitment to God first.

Each one obviously relished the chance to change modes for a few minutes and
talk about the laws of the gospel rather than the laws of the nation.