Letter Sent on April 1, 2013

Dearest Family,

Happy Easter!! I hope that it is a special day for you and that you feel closer to the Savior.  I am so grateful for this time of year and for all the reminders that we are blessed with that testify of Him and His Resurrection and Atonement.  Helps me to "always remember him". How are you?? I am doing swell and things here in Tuek Thla are going great as well. Happy Easter!
This past week we had some really cool things and some neat experiences.
We have a less active man that we are working with named Bong Pov and we usually meet him a couple of times a week, this week we went to meet with him a couple of times and asked his home teacher, Channa, to come and help fellowship him and help us teach. We had a great lesson about families and how the gospel helps our families. The most powerful part was when Channa(who is a sealed in the temple RM) shared his testimony with Bong Pov about his family and just expressed sincere love for Bong Pov. It was really neat to be there and see the pure love and sincerity that he had for Bong Pov and for the Savior Jesus Christ. He also invited him and his family to come to a family home evening this month at his house. His testimony is so strong and really is a great example to me and showed me the power of a dedicated home teacher and of how much of a difference that a loving home teacher can make.  It is so great seeing members doing missionary work!
There was a very nice man and his wife that are not members yet but came to church yesterday and seemed to be loving it, they said it was their second or third time going. They have tons of potential!! And, we are going to meet them today and we are way pumped because it is a FAMILY!!!! I'll tell you more about them and their story.. The Lord is constantly leading those whom He has prepared all around the world.
Easter is such a special time of year and I just want to share my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ lives.  I know that He has suffered, died, and been resurrected for each one of us individually because he loves us, each one of us individually.  I know that is true no matter where we are or no matter how alone or lost we feel.  I know that through Christ's Atonement everything can be made right and I am so grateful for that and for the hope it blesses me with.  I have just seen a lot of powerful examples of sincere testimony the past week and I really want to strengthen mine and be really sincere and as "bold as a lion".  Something that Bong Channa invited a couple of families that we visited with, and that I want to apply and invite you to do as well is to pray and ask God if Christ really is our Savior and if He really was resurrected does live for us today. (1 Nephi 15:11)  He lives! And what a blessing it is to share that with our brothers and sisters!

With love,
Elder Tanner Garlick

Letter Sent on March 25, 2013

Dear Family,

Hey how are ya? Wow, right now it is sure hot in this internet cafe although it's nice when the fan hits every few seconds for a few seconds!  The heat just adds to the fun of being a missionary:)
Welp I had more written but I accidently deleted it and I have to go soon....
Sorry this is super short but I'm actually in a really big hurry today!

With love,
Elder Garlick

Letter Sent on March 18, 2013

Dear Family,

How are you doing? I am doing pretty swell her in Cambodia!
Can I just start off by saying that I love my mission here in Cambodia? I really do so much.  I feel so grateful to be serving here and for the privilege to be serving our Christ like brothers and sisters here. Like this random little boy named Nov Visal that just barely came and said hi to me:)
This week has been good.  Right now we have a few investigators but not a ton and it's been kinda hard to meet with some of them so when we have time we have been doing a lot of contacting! We have been really trying to open our mouths and talk with everyone around us.  We are going to keep talking with as many people as we can about the gospel and I have faith that the Lord will lead us to those whom He has prepared or lead them to us.
I have been getting to know the area a lot better and I am really happy to be serving here in Tuek Thla.  One of my favorite members here is a man named Pu Sarom.  He was a less active man who has just recently been reactivated.  He is a shoemaker and he makes shoes for a living.  He was not so active and was not really getting a lot of orders of shoes, however, the Elders would visit him and he started coming back to church and then not to long afterwards became very busy with lots of work and lots of shoe orders.  He has a great wife and 2 children.  Yesterday he received the Melchizedek Priesthood and a calling as like the assistant branch clerk.  Super cool to see! Nothing like a less active member coming back to the fold.
Last night we went and visited a member who has been making progress with coming back to church.  Her name is Ming Hol. She wasn't able to make it to church this week because she stayed home to take care of her husband.  He is older and he is drunk a lot and just really frail and tiny.  She doesn't want to leave him at home by himself because she was afraid of him falling down and getting hurt.  Her husband was sleeping when we came over and she said that he had fallen down and that he hadn't been able to eat all day long and he's just been really out of strength.  We gave him a blessing and I had the privilege of being voice and it was just a really special experience-to be able to bless that frail little man with strength and with love from above.
I am forever grateful for Christ and for His priesthood.  I am sometimes just filled with this great love for the Cambodian people that just fills my heart and I know that it comes from Christ.  I know that He loves us all and that we can feel of His love and show our love for Him when we serve others. Let's all try and look for the many opportunities we have each day to serve those around us that stand in need and to love as Christ would.  I promise that as we do we will be happy and feel of His love and appreciation.
Have a super week!
Love,
Elder Garlick
Pics. Card reader is being weird..

Letter Sent on March 11, 2013

Dear Family,

Hey hey how are you guys? It's great to hear that things are warming up back home and all, spring is on its way! It's been a kinda crazy week a lot has happened since last P Day.  There was Zone Conferences and a bunch of busy stuff happening-great news! in the Battambang province(my first area) they finally had the branch split and now there are 3 Branches there apparently the work is just exploding and there is just a lot of great growth and success there.  I miss it a lot. But feel so blessed that I got to serve there for 6 months. So yeah, transfer stuff got figured out a little bit later than usual, so we got told on Tuesday night instead of the usual Sunday night… and guess what? I got transferred! I am no longer in Ta Khmao but am now in an area of Phnom Penh called Tuek Thla. It is probably the most city like area that I have been in and is kinda different from Ta Khmao but I really like it a lot here.
My companion's name is Elder Robert Mitchell Pettit from Taylorsville Utah! He is in the same group as Elder Jensen and has been in the country for a solid 7 months now. He is a hard worker, good at the language, and great at missionary work-I am excited to be serving with him.  On top of that is he is really into running and so we are probably going to start going running with each other, I'm really excited about that!
I miss Ta Khmao, Elder Jensen, and the members there.  It was a great final few days there, we had a really great lesson with Om Gum Ly and Bong Na about the Plan of Salvation and they both seem to be progressing well and especially Bong Na is growing in faith.  Bong Na's 6year old daughter actually has been coming to church with Om Gum Ly and absolutely loves it, has learned to pray in Primary, and helps push her mom and grandmother because she likes it so much.  One family had us over and made us a really yummy meal and gave me a parting gift, this Chinese shirt with a sweet dragon stitched into it. I love it! I love the members and everyone in Ta Khmao and will miss them.
But I really like things here in Tuek Thla, I am still trying to get used to everything and get to know the area but from what I've seen the past days the area is great! Good members, nice house, good companion, I can't complain:)
We don't really have many investigators right now, so Elder Pettit and I are going to try and do a lot of finding and contacting potential investigators.  We have an appointment tonight with a referral we just got so we hope that all will go great with that! The other day we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon with one of our Recent Converts and her 19 year old brother joined in as well and read with us, his name is Sam Onn and has sat in on a few lessons before and he came to church on Sunday too! We are going to try and start teaching him more this week!
I feel so blessed to be serving here.  I know that the Lord is truly preparing His children all around the world for the gospel and I have really been seeing it the past few days here seeing referrals being given out by members and people being led to the church.  I  love you and hope that you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Garlick

Khmer Language Lesson of the Week-Battambong translated means "lost stick", Sen Sok means like "eternal peace", Ta Khmao means "black grandpa", and Tuek Thla means "clear water"

Letter Sent on March 4, 2013

Dear Family,

How are you doing? Things here in Cambodia are heating up.  Definitely can tell that the hot season is coming in full swing! Wow it's gonna be super hot like it was last year.
This past week we had a Zone Conference and had Elder Wilson of the 70 and his wife come and help teach us.  It was super great and I learned a lot, we learned especially about repentance and about using the Book of Mormon in conversion.  I am really grateful for great leaders and for opportunities to learn.  I want to strive and use the Book of Mormon more and I have a desire to study it more sincerely.
We had a great lesson this past week with a couple of our investigators, Om Gumly and her daughter Bong Na. We finished the first lesson with them and gave them baptismal dates for the 24th of March. Then we met with them again and felt impressed as we followed up with their reading and stuff to talk again about the Book of Mormon and about praying to receive a witness. I just remember us asking Bong Na to start reading Moroni 10: 3-5 for us and as she started reading those words I felt the Spirit fill the room. It was a testimony builder for me and helped me recognize the power that the Book of Mormon really has! Just reading the words has such a powerful effect. I love the Book of Mormon and as I've been reading it personally I am strengthened and inspired to be better, the prophets words seem to ring through the pages! Om Gumly and Bong Na are doing really good, Gumly says that she believes! Bong Na isn't so sure yet but really wants to know and says that if she does come to know it is true that she's going to join and get her family to do so as well.
Things are going good here. Thanks for everything and have a great week!

Love,
Elder Garlick

 

Pics; Last P-day I was in the mission home and a couple of my friends from my old area in Sen Sok came to pick up their mission calls! Chenda and Sarat! They both are going to be serving here in Cambodia and start their missions on May 10; I was so happy to see these great guys.  Plus there are 2 Sen Sok sisters that are serving here that just got back from the MTC in the Philippines. So come May there will be 5 missionaries serving from that small branch in Sen Sok. Tubeular!!

 

 

Letter Sent on February 25, 2013

 

Dear Family,

This week has been good!  It seemed like it was a little hard because we got ditched a lot and a lot of our plans fell through.  But, that is a part of missionary work and we still worked hard and saw some great things happen.
We had a cool experience with going to visit a less active man who is the father of a couple really great strong members-one of which sed to be our Branch Mission Leader, Seiha, who will hopefully go on a mission sometime in the near future.  Anywho, We were biking down the road and felt a prompting to go and visit this less active man(Seiha's dad).  We had never really sat down and talked with him before and a lot of times he is not home but we followed the prompting and he just so happened to be home-miracle! We sat down and visited with him and had a good talk with him and developed a lot more trust, we were able to develop some trust with him and we were able to understand what he is struggling with more.  He talked a lot about how he loves his kids, he really works hard to support them so that they can go to school and learn, and he wants them to be strong and active in the church and not make the same mistakes as he has. It was great and a big step in our developing trust with him and helping him come back.
We also had a cool experience with one of our recent converts, Ming Leak, and her new home teacher, Kaem Chheun.  He asked us to come with him because his companion was taking care of his sick wife at the hospital.  So we went hometeaching with him and showed him where our Ming Leak lives.  It was a great visit and it was really cool to see the trust and the bond being established between our recent convert, Ming Leak, and her hometeacher.  It just really assures me that she is in good hands and will be taken care of and supported by the Priesthood in the branch.  Super cool!
Elder Jensen and I have been getting along really good and have some great love and unity in our companionship. We have been really trying to be prayerful and receive revelation-when we disagree about something-we take it to the Lord and pray to know what he would have us do.  This is something that we have been doing and it really helps strengthen my testimony of revelation and that the Lord is at the head of this work.
Things are going good and I know that this really is the work of the Lord. Sorry this is kinda short but that is all I've got today! Have a great day and I'll talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Garlick

Letter Sent on February 18, 2013

Dear Family,

 

Hi how are you doing?? Long time no see :) For me,

This week has been pretty good.  I had the opportunity of going on an exchange with Elder Jongsma! We went into my area and it really was a good exchange and we had some cool things happen. The focus for the exchange was to have every lesson that we taught focused on and tied into Jesus Christ. Which of course we should always do, but we wanted to set a special goal to do that in every lesson.  We wanted to come out of each lesson having lifted up and helped inspire those who we taught to stand taller and have a commitment to be a little better. 

We did a great job with accomplishing this goal and we had a cool experience visiting with a less active man named Kosal! He is 72 years old and has been a member since 1999-a long time.  He has been having some heart problems and we had a really good visit with him and he shared about himself and about his family some.  He is a super polite guy and very kind and welcoming. He talked about how he has made mistakes and so he stopped going to church.  We shared about how Christ still loves us even when we make mistakes and that His arms are always outstretched and that through His Atonement we can change.  It was a good lesson and I hope he felt the Spirit and was lifted by what we shared.  He prayed for us at the end which was also really great to hear.  When we asked him if we could come visit him again he said that yeah we could come anytime and that he is always home!  So that was great and hopefully we will be able to keep meeting with him and build up that trust again and help him come back to the church and use his Priesthood worthily. 

We have a couple of investigators that are newer; Srey Pov, Ming Sophat, and Bong Daen, that are doing good and I believe they will really keep progressing a lot this coming week.

We had a good PEC meeting a couple of weeks ago and the branch president kinda took the ropes a little with home teaching and did some assigning of home teaching companionships- and so now there are officially 8 great companionships and each has two families to teach.  So yeah super cool stuff-when home teaching becomes more and more established the branch will become more and more stronger and the members will be blessed a lot.

Something I have been thinking of lately and something that I read about is the importance of relationships.  Really in our lives relationships are the most important things that we have!  I remember Pres. Moon teaching about this a lot at a specialized training meeting we had, that when wondering where to prioritize that we ought to focus on relationships.  We really are so blessed to have all the relationships that we have, with our families, friends, and most of all with the Lord.  I read a talk by Pres. Uchtdorf called, "Of Things That Matter Most" recently.  He talks of how we need to focus on the the most important things-the basics-which he states are our relationships; 1.With our God, 2, With our families, 3. With our fellow men, and 4. With ourselves.  I am grateful for his talk and I love what he said,

 "Brothers and sisters, diligently doing the things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the world...Let us be wise. Let us turn to the pure doctrinal waters of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ" I am grateful for all the relationships that I am blessed to have in my life and for those I am developing here in Cambodia.  The Cambodian people are so Christ like and it is an honor to be able to serve them.  I love you and I hope that we can all take a step back and consider where we are in our relationships.  Have a super week!

 

Love,
Elder Garlick

Pics; 1.Elders @ The Branch Valentines Party! Elder Price, Kaev, Garlick, Jensen, Scott, Jongma

2. The Preach my Class.  They were super pumped about the class and brought in a cake and we blew out the candle together to celebrate the birth of the class:) I love these guys!

3. Khemrin-an awesome member here in Ta Khmao.  He just barely got set apart as a missionary and is now in the Philippines MTC and will be serving here in Cambodia shortly!