[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 918-919]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING GORDON B. HINCKLEY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would say very briefly that someone I have 
gotten to know over the last number of years died last night at 7 
o'clock--the leader of the Mormon Church, a man who has been 
instrumental in the tremendous growth of the church. During his period 
of time, the church has grown by millions of new people coming into the 
church. He has been a phenomenal builder, building scores of new 
temples around the world. As we speak, there is one new church building 
being built every day, being dedicated every day. That is a lot of 
construction. I was told last week that the largest single builder of 
buildings in the United States next to the Federal Government is the 
LDS Church, the Church of Jesus

[[Page 919]]

Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which this good man was the leader.
  He is someone who has done some very unique things. He started what 
is called the Perpetual Education Fund. About half the members of the 
church are located outside of the United States. Millions of members of 
the church are located in Mexico, Central and South America. He started 
what is, as I have indicated, called the Perpetual Education Fund, 
which is a voluntary contribution made from members of the church to 
help these people who are coming into the church be educated. As a 
result, tens of thousands of people are now educated and are now church 
and community leaders around the world.
  There is so much more that could be said about this good man who was 
kind and gentle and epitomized everything that is good in mankind, and 
certainly on a personal basis I will miss him greatly.

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