Hand Holding

Got you with the title, right?  ;)  So last Saturday was my birthday, and I got a great birthday present--getting to attend the baptisms of Daniel and Chenwei.

Daniel, me, & Chenwei

I had sat in and helped with a few of Daniel's lessons as he was learning more about the church.  He really was searching.  Chenwei is from China, and has recently moved here.  I don't know him well. He is young, very sweet and shy, and obviously far from home.  

Chenwei said something during his testimony that really stood out to me.  He said (in his broken English): "I am very embarrassed [nervous].  This is all new to me.  It is like the first time I went to the first day of school, and I was very nervous.  Except, the difference is that at that time my mother was holding my hand."

His sincerity and sweetness, so like a child, made it easy for me to picture him still being a boy who would want to be holding his mother's hand right then as he walked into the font, and later up to the podium.  But this time Chenwei was making this decision by himself, and he was growing up.  But he had his Heavenly Father holding his hand now, as well as the supportive hands of all the ward members and friends there.  Still, this was a choice that Chenwei had to make.  His mother led him as a child, and now he would follow the voice of his Father in Heaven.

It was just a truly touching image, and I think most of us there were moved by it.

Happy birthday, Daniel and Chenwei. ;)