Pay It Forward Winner

I didn't forget about the contest.
I really didn't.
I'll blame it on summer coming on full force, me wanting to sit outside and read all day.
Um, I mean, I weeded and mowed and raked and swept and cleaned. Yup.
Right.
Enough flabber-jabber.

The winner is: DANYELLE!
You have first pick of these three books:
Method of Madness
Shudder
Hidden Branch

Second winner:
JOLYN!
You choose your 1st and 2nd favorite books from above and I'll send you the one that isn't picked by Danyelle.

And because there were three GREAT stories, I'm giving a third one away to:
YAMILE!

Thanks for sharing your stories. Get me your snail mail and I'll send off your books!


And here is my story:

My friends and I were traveling through Korea for a a few days. The next morning, Sunday, we woke up to a dusting of snow. Little Korean grandmas were brushing the snow with little branch brooms.
That little bit of snow shut everything down.
And we Americans weren't ready for winter; all we had were jackets.
We went to church only to find the U.S. base was closed so no members came. The branch president and wife, mission president and wife and four missionaries, plus 4 of us were at church. The decision was made to go to church at the Korean branch.
We looked forward to getting warm at church but no such luck. The heat wasn't turned on to save money.
We were freezing. My friend and I sat close together hoping to share warmth when several women beckoned us to follow them. None of them spoke English and none of us spoke Korean and yet we understood each other with smiles and nods.
One woman gave us her gloves, another the fur hood off her coat and another even offered her nylons. One of the missionaries gave us his coat to share.
Every meeting was translated into English for the four of us. The teachers gave part of their lesson and waited while someone translated. Prayers and talks went the same way. The only difficulty was singing the hymns from memory since all the hymnals were in Korean.
I don't remember the talks or lessons except the one taught by example. The love and service that Korean branch gave us will never leave me.
It happened over 20 years ago.