Letter Sent on August 13, 2012

 

Hey Family!

Hey how are you doing?? I am now in Sen Sok! I would not really consider it "in Phnom Penh" because it actually a very far bike ride away..for example it would take an hour and a half to bike to the mission home from here! It is a good hour bike ride away from the city.  It is an extremely poor area-the poorest in the mission.  It is all a very humbling experience.  It is definitely a change from Battambang but I like it a lot and am excited to serve here. I am still trying to get to know the members and to figure things out; but things are going good!
I am super happy to be working with Elder Hem and we get along really well! He is a great Elder and we are really trying to help each other with the language; he helps me with Khmer, and I help him with English. He is my first Cambodian companion and I feel that us trying to help each other and us having a desire to learn and improve helps us have a good spirit of unity and service to one another. Elder Hem is very humble and has a sweet spirit about him.  He is very kind and willing to help.  He is 26 years old, which means he has a lot of experience to share. I am excited to learn and serve with him.
Things are going well and we will work our hardest and do our best!
I loved serving in Battambang and I miss the members and those whom I had the blessing of serving. I have so much to learn from their Christlike examples. I am excited to get to work here in SenSok and to fall in love with the people here! I have faith that there are going to be some great challenges and great miracles here!
Thanks for everything. I love you.
Love,
Elder Garlick

Pics; Sweet Sunset in Battambang!, The Chin Family, they are amazing members, and are some of the most angelic people I have met in my life.  The whole family is so strong in the gospel.  Most Sundays they would go to both branches.  One of their sons is an RM and is the first counselor here in Sen Sok so it will be great working with him too! Om Sum-one of the funniest people in Battambang.  He is just a lovable old man and has a strong desire to go to the temple and is preparing to go be sealed in Hong Kong! So Sai Sim, the Vietnamese man that we contacted a couple of weeks ago.  Peckdei, he is the District President's son-in-law and he would help us with going to teach a lot! He is so humble and very loving.  One of my favorite people I've met on my mission.  Rit Sine, Me, Puu Roat, and Puu Maat.  Puu Roat is such and example to me about the Sabbath day. He works for 24 hours straight on Saturday so that he can have Sunday off. Incredible faith. Tiavii and her family-learning again! Elder's Quorum Pres. Puu Salmon. President Bunno and his family.

Letter Sent on August 6, 2012

Dear family!

Hey! How are things? 

Things here in Battambang are going great!  This past Saturday we had a Book of Mormon finding activity that went awesome! We had a great turnout and ended up having around 250 to 300 people show up to it.  We saw a lot of members and investigators that came and a good amount of people that were not familiar with our Church.  There were Book of Mormon activities and games, rooms set up explaining the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and there was a great happy Spirit present.  I think that everyone had a good time and felt a special Spirit there.  We gave everyone agendas with places to write their name, number, and address, and thoughts.  We will be going through these and I am confident that we will be able to contact those who have potential and find more of those whom the Lord has prepared. Our prayers were answered and the activity was a success.

At the beginning of my mission when I first got to Battambang we were teaching this family; Tiavii and her husband Bong Tii, and her sisters.  They were doing great and having great experiences with the Book of Mormon, they were some of my favorite people to teach; Elder Nebeker and I loved them so much.  However, they ran into some financial troubles and there was some things that needed to be worked out so they were too busy to learn and we had to take a break from teaching them.

However, I am so happy to announce that they are learning again! They saw Elder Oleson and Elder Gerrard when they were going down the street and told them that they wanted to start learning again!  Sowandie came back from working in Thailand for a few months and we had the opportunity to start meeting them again.

We met them this past week with the Branch President; who is friend of theirs from their former Christian church, and who led them to our Church.  It was such a happy experience and the Spirit was definitely there, we invited them all to be baptized in that first appointment and they all accepted.  It was a very special experience and I felt SO happy seeing them again learning and being exciting and willing to make this sacred covenant with the Lord.  I am so grateful to see them come back and to recognize the Lord's love and mercy for all of His children!

Also, we had transfer calls last night! And I am being transferred this Friday..I will be going to Phnom Penh and to an area called Sensok and will be companions with Elder Hem.  My first Cambodian companion! I am sad and excited all at the same time.  I will miss Elder Jensen; we have become a lot closer and I am going to miss him and his fun sense of humor.  He is a great Elder! He is actually going to be training after I leave.   I love Battambang so much and the members here.  I am glad that things are picking up and that things are going so good here right now.  I feel so blessed to have been able to serve here, especially with these angelic members. I will miss them dearly but I know that the Lord knows where each missionary needs to go. 

I love you! I hope you have a great week! May the Lord continue to bless you.

With love,

Elder Garlick 

Pics: BOM activity. Food! Reading makes one tired! Virea, Siitate, and Rhytie(one of our Recent Converts) helping in a room, Our investigator Sokchen and a couple of his kids, BOM missionaries:)

Letter Sent on July 30, 2012

Dear Family,

How are you? I hope that things are going just swell! Happy Pioneer Day!! Happy Birthday Ethan.

Things here in Battambang are going really well!  We have been preparing a Book of Mormon activity for this following Saturday.  We are doing it to strengthen the members and their resolve to read the Book of Mormon; and also to find new investigators as we are inviting lots of people to come and as friends and family of members hopefully come too.  A member of the District Presidency is going to get up and give a challenge for the members to read the whole Book of Mormon by the end of the year.  We are getting a lot the members involved and it is inspiring to see how excited and willing they are to help serve.

This past week I had the privilege of going on an exchange with Elder Oleson and Elder Nelson(He is an Assistant to the President-that guy we watched that BYU movie about his life, he is a super good missionary!)  I learned so much and it really strengthened me as a missionary.  I was with Elder Olseon just for the morning while we were waiting for the Assistants to come from the city to go on exchanges with. We were in my area for the day.  As we went out, the male member whose help we had planned on using was not available and so we had to come up with some new plans.  We said a prayer and really tried to go by the Spirit. I remember feeling that we should go visit a Less Active named Puu Chea.  We went and visited him and his family and we gave his wife a blessing who has been sick.  We told him about the Pioneer Day activity on Saturday and invited him to church.

Then later after Elder Nelson got here we were biking down the street and I remember we biked by a kinda weird guy with a cane who seemed a little lossed and I wasn't sure if he was all there.  We kept biking down the street but I felt the Spirit whisper that we needed to go back and talk to that man.  We went back and we started talking to him.  Right off the bat, the man we started talking to, knew that we were Christians and asked when we met (he got straight to the point!)  We invited him to the Pioneer Day activity and to go to church on Sunday.  He showed some interest and we told him where the church was.  The contact's name was So Sai Sim and he is from Vietnam.  He has diabetes which makes it hard for him to walk and function normally.

The Pioneer Day activity came around and it turned out that both Puu Chea and also So Sai Sim came.  Some of the members really helped them out and helped them feel welcome.  It was even greater the following day to see them both come to church. It was so neat to see Puu Chea there with his wife and kids.  Then also to see So Sai Sim come and we helped him come in with a wheelchair.  They both stayed till the end of 3rd hour.

I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost.  I know that the Lord is at the head of this work.  I believe that He is a lot more involved than we recognize.  I know that if we will live worthily and take the time to listen that he will direct us through His Holy Spirit.  I learned a lot more about following the Spirit and seeking to know what the Lord wants us to do and say.  I love the Lord and am coming to know Him better.

 Welp, thank you for your emails and everything.  I hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Garlick

PS.  Stirakasourous? That is what Elder Jensen says it is called:)  Pictures from the Pioneer activity on Saturday.  We ate this rice soup stuff.  It was pretty yummy...It was made in these GIANT metal pots for everyone. And Elder Jensen found a whole chicken head in his-yum-o! I love the members here so much. The youth are the best.  And the picture with me and those two men-to left is Sarien and is a guard at the church and the Elders Quorum in the other branch he is always so nice.  And the one to the right is Bong Dat; He is really shy but super kind spirited, he is a recent convert of Elder Oleson's and has already gave a talk in church and has a calling as an Elder's Quorum teacher.

Letter Sent on July 23, 2012

 

Dear Family,

How are you doing?? Things here in Battambang are going really well right now.

This past week we worked a lot with Less actives and we have also really been working hard on getting our CBR book (missionary record for all members) updated (so that later generations can easily find and know how all the members are doing) and going and trying to find these members that are less active and have not been met in a long time.  It has
been going good and I feel like we are getting a lot of balanced work done.

One cool experience that is related to this was when we had a plan fall through we prayed about what to do and then we decided to go and look for a couple of less active families.  We went to go and find a boy named Cantaa who was baptized about 6 years ago when he was twelve.  We found his house but he wasn't home at the time, and we started talking with his father.  His dad is a super funny old man and he was telling us how he likes to read in the Book of Mormon and when we were going to leave he told us to that he was going to say the "closing prayer" for us! We invited him to come to church and on Sunday he came with his Cantaa, his LA son! He also said that he'd come again next week and we will try and get him started with learning with us this week too!  It was a very neat experience and has strengthened my testimony of working with Less Actives and going and finding these lost sheep. I know that our Heavenly Father loves all of His children and continues to lead us to them.

The family that I mentioned last week Sokcen and Srey Pouv are doing really good and they got a bike this past week! This is a big blessing because before they had no means of transportation at all.  And so they and their 3 children all came to church all together for the first time!  They are still reading the Book of Mormon very well and Srey Pouv is already in like 2 Nephi 20 and she reads the pages all 2 or 3 times in order to understand them all extra well! She talks about how her belief is growing and it is amazing seeing how the Book of Mormon is expanding her faith and her understanding. Every time we visit them it is a battle with all of their children screaming and running around! But they both try so hard to focus and understand the doctrine that we teach to them. They are a very special family. It is remarkable seeing the Lord's hand in this work and I know that we are so blessed!

Recently I have been reading about the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi and about their amazing testimony and attitude towards the gospel.  I love verse 19 in Alma 24 where it says, "And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin" Also the attitude of Ammon in Alma 26:8,11-12.  "Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever."  I love the Lord and I am so and grateful for the opportunity to serve Him.
May we all remember Him, and have songs of praise in our hearts.

Thank you for your prayers and for all that you do! Khnom srolan neak thom thom! I love you big big!!

Love,
Elder Garlick

PS.Oh and one quick funny thing- with Cantaa's father. I was sitting next to the him in sacrament meeting and when the sacrament was coming back there was a bunch of young children sitting in the row in front of us and Cantaa's dad was sure to tell all of the kids in front of us to make sure they only take one piece of bread and he diligently reminded them as the tray was making its way toward us. And then when it was his turn to partake, with all of the young men turned back watching him, he grabbed a small handful of the bread and was sure to tell the obedient group of young men sitting in front of us that it was only "1" chewing it with a smirk on his face. Haha! He is 66 and is a very silly man!:)

Pics; Pictures from this ancient 1000 year old temple called Benon. Elder Jensen and I trying to balance on these like 6 feet tall pillar things! The ancient temple is on a mountain and it has this extremely long and steep "Kung Fu Panda" staircase going up the mountain up to it! Super neat:)