Letter Sent on November 26, 2012

Things here in TaKhmao are going good! Thanksgiving was good! We went to Elder and Sister Tuck's, the senior couple, house and had a great American Thanksgiving, with pumpkin pie made from Cambodian pumpkins and everything! So that was great, But I still missed eating with all of you!
This week was really swell. Ming Leak who I told that has been progressing really fast.  We had just given her a Book of Mormon a little while ago and the last time we met her she was on the last chapter of 1st Nephi.  She is definitely growing in her faith and testimony.  She is doing super good.  She has some great friendships with some of the other Relief Society sisters.  Hopefully we can help her husband to start learning as well.  She has a baptismal date for Dec. 16th.
We also went and found a returned missionary that has been less active for some time now. We had went to go find him before and he wasn't around, his sister told us he is only home on the weekends, and then on something fell through so we went to go try and meet him again and he was around!  We had the opportunity to visit with him for a little while.  It was great to meet with him and he said that he wants to come back.  We gave him a new Book of Mormon and we asked him if we could start meeting him regularly to help him come back.  It seems like he definitely has potential to come back, and we are going to help him come and receive all the blessings the Lord has waiting for him.
We had a great contact with some of our Recent Convert's dad.  We were waiting to meet with his son and daughter, Cannia and Canknight, and we got talking with the dad.  He asked me a kinda random question about what my greatest desire was and I told him about how I wanted to have happiness with my family.  We then had a really good conversation with him and he talked to us about how everyone wants to be happy and how everyone wants to have a good life.  We talked to him about how the Gospel has blessed our families and testified that it can help his.  We asked to meet him and to teach him more and he agreed to meet with us! He never really seemed to be to interested or to have much of a desire to learn before; it is amazing to me how the Lord creates opportunities and puts us in situations in which we are able to open our mouths and share the gospel.  My testimony is constantly being strengthened that He knows His children and He knows what they need.  I am grateful for the blessing of being put in situations everyday to share this message with them!
I love you!

Love,
Elder Garlick

 

Letter Sent on November 19, 2012

Dear Family,

How is life? Excited for Thanksgiving?? I'll miss you eating with you all!:) Eat some extra pie for me. Things are going great here in Ta Khmao!
We had a great experience with a less active man and his family whom we met. We shared some things with them and then at the end of the lesson his daughter, who is in her 20s, wanted a blessing and the Dad said it was fine. She was like, "Well the Elders can give me one". We said that we would be happy to participate in it but insisted that her father give the blessing. At first he was reluctant and told us that he has never given on before. However, after some persuading we were able to console him into giving his daughter the blessing. The Spirit was definitely there and I really felt the Spirit very powerfully and knew that there was something special and powerful about a father giving his daughter a blessing. I know that he was happy that he did it as well and that it was a spiritual experience for them both. They both came to church on that next Sunday which was also a great blessing!
This week we were able to start meeting with a couple of referrals from members that we received and they are really cool.  We started meeting with a lady named Ming Leak and she had actually come to church a couple of weeks for the full 3 hours already. She has been praying and we talked to her yesterday and she said that she has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot too.
The other is a single mother named Ming Navii who has 4 children.  There are 3 of her kids that she wants to learn with us too.  She says she wants to become a member!  This is great!  She has learned about Christ before and really has great potential.
Right now we have 3 families we are teaching, which is another huge blessing, however, this past week it has been hard to meet with the families that we are teaching but we are hoping that this week it will be better with meeting them.  There have been some crazy things happening in their lives-one has a child in the hospital, another got kicked out of their house and had to move.  They are have a lot of trials which seems to always happen when they near baptism; however, we are praying for them and have faith that the Lord will take care of them.  I know that He is very much involved in this work, for it indeed is His Work.  I am so grateful for that.  I feel like Elder Sem and I am being so blessed and I am so grateful because it really is not from anything special or terrific that we are doing.  I am learning and growing a lot and am grateful for the opportunity to be serving at this time when the Lord is hastening His work. What an amazing time to be living and to be a member of His church!
Thank you for your prayers and for all that you do. I love you. Have a super week! Till next time.

Love,
Elder Garlick

Pics; Cambodia; This really good banana soup desert thing that Elder Sem and Elder An made; Old picture from last week; At an FHE! We played this card game called, "Gohawk" and if you got caught lying you got your face marked:), Members at the FHE: Om Davii, Om Tong, Ming Lekana; Cute baby.

Letter Sent on November 12, 2012

Dear Family,

Hey! How are you?? I am doing amazing thanks for asking. Sorry if this isn't the most detailed letter..I should probably write this letter earlier cause I seem to always be running out of time and my comps are all probably sick of waiting on me-I guess that is one thing I have yet to learn on my mission; how to do things a little quicker. Haha, I've still got time;)
This past week was super good-
This week we had 4 baptisms. Rit, Canight, Cania, and Ciamin.  Two were for the niece and nephew of Elder Sok's mom. One was for a neighbor of the Branch President's father who I believe is in the member of the District Presidency. Their parents are not members but still all came to watch the baptism of their children and we will pray and strive to teach them as well.
We also had a man named Ciamin be baptized by his son and is now the final member in his family to become a member. He was so ready for it and was so happy to be baptized! It was amazing. We met him last night and he told us he just felt very excited and happy! Future Melchizedek Priesthood holder! And future sealed family!  Amazing stuff happening here in Thakmao. I really feel so so blessed to be a part of it.  What an absolute privilege it is to be involved in this the Lord's work.  I don't want to waste a single day!
We also had a referral out in Baakuu of a family of 11- they have strong faith in Christ and are so full of faith and interested in hearing our special message! The only problem is the transportation for church..they don't really have a way but we will exercise faith and trust the Lord to help them find a way.
I really love it here President and we are seeing so many miracles! Elder Sem is an amazing missionary and I feel very blessed to be his companion. Thanks for everything, again sorry this email isn't the greatest-I had great intentions but we are running late to go eat with the other Elders.  Thanks for all that you do, it really means a lot.  I really love this work and I love being a missionary! And of course I really love you all so much as well! Have a stellar week:)

Love,
Elder Garlick

Pics; Over this bridge we bike past all the time, Cool kid walking around listening to Bruno Mars, The beautiful landscapes of Cambodia, Rit and his fam, Cania an Canight and their fam, Cania and his fam, Elder Rucker and Me by the BYU tuk tuk!!!!!:)

Letter Sent on November 5, 2012

Dear Family,

This week has been really quite good! This past week Elder Hem and I were in Sen Sok for a few days and we were trying to get the area nice and ready for 2 other Elders to "whitewash" it.  It was really fun proselyting with him and it was just like "old times"! We had to go back and forth to the city for meetings and stuff and to help him move his stuff to a new house that they were moving the Elders into.  We said our goodbyes to the members and tried to get everything ready for the new Elders.  I love the members there and I feel that I was only there for a blink of an eye.  Time keeps rolling forward-pretty scary. I feel like my time in the mission is so short.  I am going to make the most of it and work my absolute hardest! I love what President Uchtdorf talked about during conference about finding joy in the journey and that is what I am going to try and do.
Welp, now I am in Ta Khmao(in Phnom Penh, my first real "city"area) with Elder Sem; and I love the area here! Elder Sem and I are getting along really well.  I really love the area and am enjoying getting to know the members here.  It is kinda hard starting in a new area and not really knowing anyone and having to learn and adjust to everything; however, Elder Sem is awesome and is really great at helping me come to know the area.  We have a great investigator named Om Ciamin, he is the father in a family of 4 and his wife and 2 children are members.  He is about ready to be baptized and should be baptized this week! I love meeting with him and his family and seeing how his wife and children are supporting him and sharing their love and testimonies with him.  I've only met with him a couple of times but I love seeing how his family supports him and teaching them as a family. That's the way teaching should be.   I feel that something that we are going to really try and work on is finding families and really praying for that specifically.
I know that this work is true and that the Lord will sustain us and guide us as we submit to Him.  I know that prayer has power and I know that our Loving Father always listens and is always near.  I am excited to be serving here in Ta Khmao! I hope that you have a great week and know that you are in my prayers.  I love you so much! Thanks for everything I love hearing from you.

Love,
Elder Garlick

Pictures @ the Combok Waterfall we went to as a Zone last week! And some other pics.

Letter Sent on October 29, 2012

Dear Family,

Hey! How's it going? I hope you had a great week! Well for me, this week was.... pretty crazy! Probably one of the craziest of my mission. 
Well I haven't mentioned this prior-because I considered it private-but Elder Sprinkle actually has depression, and is actually diagnosed as having bi polar disorder.  He has had it his whole mission and has been pushing through and battling with it, despite being asked a number of times if he would like to go home.  He actually has not been diagnosed with any medication and there is no way for him to receive any here in Cambodia; so he has just had to push through.  I really admire him so much for that and for his love for the Lord and his desire to do the work.  However, as of late it was getting to be really hard and he was getting just so worn from battling it every day for the past 20 months and it was just beating him up.  Both he and President Moon prayed about it and both received revelation that it was time that he go back to America and receive the medication that he needs.  President Moon and his family did a dinner for him and there was a general authority there (Elder Wilson of the 70; who was here for a District Conference) and we were able to take care of all the things that he wanted to do before he left. Elder Sprinkle was honorably released and he went back home to Maryland on Friday.
I am grateful that things worked out the way that they did.  It was so neat to hear about the revelation that both Elder Sprinkle and President Moon received that helped them both know that it was time for him to go get the treatment that he needed.  I remember talking to him about it and he might have felt a little sad about leaving a few months early(which is to be expected); however, he said he was really at peace with the whole deal and I'm sure very excited to be reunited with his family once again.  It was confirmed that it was the right time to go home and that he had served the full mission that the Lord wanted him to serve.  I am very proud of him.  I really do love Elder Sprinkle so much!  He really was one of my favorite companions, he was an amazing missionary and he still is! Although there were unexpected obstacles I very much enjoyed and grew tons from the time that we had to serve together.  I really learned so much from him and a lot about patience and about being more charitable.  I miss him but I am excited for him to get the medicine and relief that he deserves.
Afterwards I was with one of the APs, Elder Pearson, for a day-which was crazy because I got to help translate for President Moon and Elder Wilson! I was pretty nervous about doing it but it turned out being pretty fun:)
And right now Elder Hem and I are proselyting in Sen Sok which is very fun and effective.  We both know the area really good and we are excited to meet with the investigators and members here whom we have grown to love.  And then last night was transfer calls-and it turns out I am being transferred to another area just outside the city called Tak Kamou! It was extremely unexpected because I have only been in Sen Sok for 2 transfers and not the "usual 4".  I honestly have mixed feelings-I am sad to leave because I love this area and the members here a lot and I was really looking forward to serving them longer-however, I am so very excited to go and to serve in Tak Kamou!  Elder Hem and me will be proselyting here in Sen Sok together until transfers on Friday-we will do our best and work our very hardest!  I have got to go cause we are going to have fun at some mountain place today and right now I am being hurried! Thanks for everything you do!  Okay, I love you! Talk with you again next week!

Love,
Elder Garlick