Letter Sent on March 19, 2012

 

Hey how's it all going??
I'm doing good! This week has been pretty great! It's real hawt! It's the hottest time of the year and from what I've heard next month is the hottest! Wheew! Never sweated this much in my life!  But then in May it starts to rain a lot and cools down some. Biking is fun :) We bike down a bunch of rocky roads (mmm. that sounds good right now) so that calls for lots of tire repairs and whatnot-no biggie though! Just imagine taking a beach cruiser with no shocks mountain biking-haha!:)
This week Villai is doing really great we asked her to pray about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the gospel.  She told us yesterday that she had and that when she reads the Book of Mormon she just really feels that it is true.  We then watched the Restoration video in Cambodian and she said that this really helped her understand better, it was such a calm and peaceful lesson.  We have committed her to baptism on May 12!!:)
So this week my District Leader, Elder Wright, went on an exchange with Elder Nebeker in my area for a day and so I was with Elder Sin (haha, I know right?:) for the day!  Yeah that was interesting.  He is new too and so it was kinda rough at times because we are both greenies, but at least he's Cambodian and he really knows a lot of English.  But yeah its good for me to just get immersed more in the language and not be able to lean on English.  He is such a kind and humble Elder and he is really just so patient with me; I have SO much to learn from him and from all of the Elders and Sisters in my District!
I am inspired by these him and Elder Khlot who is the other Cambodian Elder in my District (of 8).  We were all going around getting to know each other at lunch after a district meeting last week at our senior couple, the Yeates' home, and Elder Sin told and one of the other Elders has told me that he would just go out with the missionaries and help them all the time before his mission.  The Cambodian Elders have to save up so much money before they can go on a mission and Elder Khlot told us how he worked for 3 years in order to save for his. That's crazy right?? Crazy cool. They are just so incredible and great examples to me!
Strengthening my prayers has been something that has been on my mind a lot lately. Okay this is probably my favorite scripture, definitely up there, Alma 37:36-37. "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yeah, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and withers ever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yeah, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.  Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."  I love this principle of just not telling our prayers but actually crying unto God and counsel with Him in all our doings.  Too often I just say pray and then go and do without continuing to have that prayer in my heart and directing my thoughts and actions unto him.  I actually listened to this talk by Elder Bednar yesterday, "Pray Always".  I learned so much about gratitude and making my prayers more powerful and meaningful.  Check it out, I'd HIGHLY recommend it! (October 2008 conference)
Anywho I am so thankful for prayer and I know that it is real and powerful; every time I pray sincerely I always feel better and uplifted.  We have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than we know.  He watches over us, cries with us, and celebrates with us, he listens to us.  I know prayer is how we communicate with Him.  And what an incredible blessing it is.
Thank you for all of your emails, support, and prayers, they mean the world to me.  Really.  I hope that you are doing great and have a great week!

Love,
Elder Garlick

PS. Sorry if my emails don't make any sense. I just kinda slap whatever comes to mind down on the keyboard and so uh...yeah, haha, if so, sorry, my bad :)

Some Pics:
Cool looking sun.  The District President for Battambang, we live across the street from him; we tried out helping them pull off feathers from these quail, fun experience!  Tried to get a picture of this sunset...had to move back some and then this random guy jumps in the picture, no idea who he was; funny guy though!  The primary kids after their program yesterday, cute.  Our lovely home :)

Letter Sent on March 11, 2012

Hey Family!

I hope that you are all doing great! I am doing good, thanks for asking :) Yeah, how about that weather? Pretty hot huh? I know it's really hot. I hope it rains today! Do you think it will? Yeah you're right; guess it looks like it might, I guess we'll have to wait and see..!

Well this week has been good.  I was with Elder Khlot and Elder Sin for 3 full days and I really love those two.  It was very hard communicating at times but it was all a great experience.  It was fun during language study; Elder Sin would help me with Cambodian, and I would help him with English.  He is pretty good at English, just comes out all the same tone and so that is kinda funny sometimes. I grew a lot and have been learning a little bit better how to get out of my comfort zone and speak Cambodian.  I am learning a lot about patience. My understanding when people talk to me is slowly yet surely getting better and my confidence in speaking has improved some too.  I would have to say I am all but fluent! Haha, joke.  But it's going good, not easy but it's going good.

Elder Nebeker baptized Srei Doit on Saturday and we confirmed her on Sunday so that was great.  I am very thankful to have been apart of teaching her and look forward to continuing to work with her.

We have an investigator named Vwillai who we committed to baptism last night or I guess when you get this it would be, tonight! haha, she is getting baptized on May 12.  We can only meet her on sat and Sundays but she has really been reading the BOM and is in 2 Nephi.  We have like 5 baptismal dates this month but I don't think any of these investigators will be able to make it then because we haven't been able to meet with them as much as we'd like but no worries because we will continue to help them progress towards that.

I love biking around here.  I am so grateful for the breeze.  More than ever!  It's fun biking to places and enjoying the beauty of Cambodia.  There are beautiful palm trees everywhere and I always feel like I am looking at a postcard.  It is weird not seeing mountains in the horizon it is very flat so it seems like the clouds just go on forever.  This does make for some amazing sunsets.  While we were in Elder Sin's Area on Tuesday it was the most incredible golden sunset, the whole sky was just gold.  Further from the city you could see the whole sky and clouds and it was incredible.  Sadly, I left my camera at the house, kripes! Oh well 21 more months to get good pics.  I remember at the MTC I loved seeing the Provo Mountains every day.  They are so beautiful and when it would snow it was so great to.  I guess I'm just saying wow what a beautiful world we live in! I am coming to be more appreciative of it and the little things.

Maybe you've read this before but, I read this a while back and it really means a lot to me:

"Footprints"

One night a man had a dream.  He dreamed he

was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.

For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints

in the sand: one belonging to him, and the

other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before

him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path

of his life there was only one set of footprints. 

He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest

and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the

LORD about it. "LORD, you said that once i decided

to follow you, you would walk with me all the way.

But I have noticed that during the most troublesome

times in my life, there is only one set of

footprints.  I don't understand why when I needed

you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied. "My son. My precious child. I

love you and I would never leave you.  During

your times of trial and suffering, when you see

only one set of footprints, it was then that

I carried you."

~Author unknown~

I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is my best friend.  I am grateful more than ever for His Atonement and knowing that He understands it all.  I am so grateful that I can always turn to Him and that He always understands perfectly.  He lives and I know He loves us all, may we always remember Him and turn to Him, for He will carry us. (Alma 7:11-13)

I hope you have a great week! I love you.

Love,

Elder Garlick

Here are some pics.Elder Khlot was freaking out and when Elder Sin and I came into the kitchen this is what we saw, An earwigx100! Or is it a Centipede or Millipede? Don't know.  But I do know that the picture doesn't do it justice.  It was huge! We sprayed like a gallon of Raid on it.  Elder Sin said that "it is toxic." I was kinda paranoid a little that night after.  No idea how it got in.  Srei Doit(I feel so bad for her, she got this weird sickness and had like a swollen gluten or something, and I her face got really swollen and I think it's not very fun stuff! But she's one tough cookie.) and her Fam and her friend (one of our investigators), and Good ol' Elder Nebeker.

Letter Sent on March 4, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!

I hope that all is well! Things here are going real good. This week has been good lots and lots of biking, teaching, and good ol' work!  Welp, right now it's like 1 in the afternoon and you (11pm) a lot of you are probably still up perhaps getting ready for bed and some of you older folks, snoozing:)  Some random stuff about Cambodians.  They love to watch cheesy Chinese Soap Operas dubbed over with Cambodian, the streets, again, are just insane everyone just does whatever they want and it just seems to work out, they love "Angry Birds" I always see people wearing Angry Birds stuff, um...I had a lot of other things that I had thought of earlier but I can't think of them now..We are not allowed to eat from street vendors or from members which is a newer mission rule because there was just tons of missionaries sick and they decided to do this and the number went down dramatically.  So we have to make all of our food or go to restaurants.  Lots of PB&J's and rice.  Usually we go and buy pork and rice in the morning with some sauce for breakfast-real cheap, 75 cents:)

We have an investigator named Boong Srei Doit whom Elder Nebeker will be baptizing on Saturday and so that is something that I am looking forward to!  She is so ready and has such incredible faith and willingness to follow Christ.  My testimony of the Book of Mormon continues to grow-I continue to find answers and comfort from it and I know that it is vital to gaining a testimony.  We were teaching a lesson to a lady and her two sisters and her husband has joined us for a couple and he was really just not to interested but I watched as he was reading from a pamphlet while we were teaching his family about Christ and as we read from Mosiah 3 about the Savior, he was touched and really impressed and said that he would actually try to read the Book of Mormon even though he is incredibly busy.  The Book of Mormon is just so powerful and does miracles.  Softening hearts and changing lives, it truly makes our job easy and possible.  I heard once, "If the Book of Mormon had legs and could talk, we wouldn't need any missionaries."  I love it and my testimony in its divinity continues to grow.

As a missionary I am so blessed to see miracles every day.  I think I have seen them my whole life but that I'm just being more aware of them now.  I remember a talk by Pres. Eyring called "O Remember, Remember" about recognizing the Hand of the Lord everyday and how as we do so our love, gratitude, and testimony of Him will grow.  And I read in the Liahona a talk by Elder Bednar about the tender mercies of the Lord.  I received a letter from a friend in the MTC where I was counseled to write down the hand of the Lord and recognize His tender mercies.  This is something I am going to do and I would invite you to do the same!  I know we'll recognize His love and Hand in our lives and our testimonies and love will grow tremendously!

I have been struggling a lot to be honest, the first week of my mission was just very difficult more difficult than I would have anticipated.  Learning a new language, the heat, and just staying so busy! I sometimes just feel lonely and frustrated.  I am learning now more than ever and being grateful for the Savior.  I am so grateful for His Atonement and that when we feel alone and when times are hard he is there for us.  I am so grateful for prayer and know that it is powerful.  Our Heavenly Father loves us all so much and I am so thankful for prayer and the comfort of the Holy Ghost.  I know that things are not going to always be easy but I know that with Him everything will work out.  I love Him and I love you!

Thanks for all of your words of encouragement and for reminding me to not get discouraged-great advice. Have a great week thanks for your prayers and I pray for you!

Love,

Elder Garlick

Pictures: Srei Doits cute kids, I am with Elder Khlot and Elder Sin right now because Elder Nebeker is at leadership training in Phnom Penh...so this is going to be interesting cause they don't speak a whole lot of English:) And then Elder (ham)Nebeker

Elder Nebeker & Elder Garlick. 

This is Tanner's first campanion in Cambodia.

Letter Sent on February 26, 2012

Hey Famary!

How are you? Well here I am in Cambodia! It's crazy. So we had a 5 hour layover in LAX waiting for our flight to Hong Kong, and I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a two young women.  I was waiting to use the phones and was sitting a seat away from them.  I started talking to them and it turns out that they were on their way home to Australia after a 2 month trip around the US and Canada.  I asked them what their names were and they told me Sophie and Monique.  They asked me mine and I told them Tanner but I go by Elder Garlick and then they kinda asked about why the "Elder" and what that meant and stuff and about what I was doing and everything.  Then I kinda was explaining about the Church some and then Elder Barney came and sat down by me and I just asked if we could tell them about our church-they said yes, and we taught the whole first lesson and answered a bunch of their questions.  Monique said she was Christian and was very open and Sophie didn't really believe in God but had some questions for us.  Sophie didn't want to take a Book of Mormon but Monique did and said she would read it some to learn some more because she is open to things and interested.  We told them about Mormon.org if they wanted to learn more(which is a sweet website bytheway) They were both really kind and fun to talk to, who knows what will happen but I am so grateful for that opportunity to open my mouth and share. The flight here was really great I actually enjoyed it a lot. Sounds weird but I did!

Cambodia. It is so very hot here.  Anywho we got here and stayed in the Mission home for a night and ate some good food and received orientation and such, then the next day, Friday, we got assigned our trainers and first areas.  I so blessed to be with Elder Nebeker.  He is from Twin Falls, Idaho and is great! He has 12 weeks left on his mission and so I am going to "kill" him.  He is a great teacher and knows how to follow the Spirit.  He is very warm hearted and encouraging to me.  He's great and I have a lot a lot to learn from him.  We are in Battambang.  It's one of the "kites" of Cambodia, about a 6 hour bus ride away from Phnom Penh. (on a map it's gonna be northwest I think..) It's a great place!

Pretty much everything I thought a mission would be and what people told me is coming true. But it's one thing to talk about it and another thing to actually do it.  Our house is pretty..uh...well for Cambodian standards it's great!:) Definitely not like my real home but the study room and the bedroom are great with the A/C-my new best friend!-we have tons of big spiders, um some geckos, and yesterday we had a big lizard called a "dokai" hanging out in our house.  Its an adjustment but I'm getting used to things better.  We have some great investigators and had 9 investigators come to church yesterday.  We have like 6 investigators with baptismal dates for next month too. Things are going well.  The people are so kind and humble!  The language is...tough.  I can say some of what I want to say but I have a very hard time understanding what people say to me. I figure that if I can't say anything then I can at least smile-so yeah, I've been smiling a lot:) haha. But I know that if I remain diligent and do my best I know that it will come!  I think I'm learning more and more the need to be reliant on the Lord and that I am not going to be able to do this without Him.  So I am grateful for that and for this opportunity that I have to continually seek to draw closer to Him, to lean and rely on Him.  I love this work and the people of Cambodia-they. are. incredible.  They are super humble and open to the gospel and the Lord is preparing them.

I had better go but know that I am safe and doing good! I love you and know that I am grateful for you!

Love,

Elder Garlick

PS.  Here are some pictures-the lizard, a talking bird that makes crazy noises, and some Cambodia.

Tanner's Letter Sent on Feburary 21, 2012

Suasdei!

How’s it going?? Things here are great, I’m supposed to go to the travel office in an hour but just thought I’d drop you a line real quick:) This week was great. Just getting ready to go! Super Excited!!!!! Oh yeah cool story, so David Tenney came into the MTC on Wed. and I actually was escorting again that day. I thought it would be so cool if I could escort one of my best buds! I knew the odds were very slim. But I prayed that I could have the opportunity to escort him and see him. I would be cool if I couldn't but I prayed that I could. And guess what? I escorted him:) Out of all the what 400 missionaries that come in I was able to get to escort him. I saw his car drive past and I hurried and ran down just a couple of stations and was able to say hi to the Tenneys and escort him. It was really cool. I was grateful for that prayer answered. Some might say it's just a coincidence but I feel it was an answer to my prayers. It wasn't even a big thing but it meant a lot to me that our Heavenly Father was that mindful of just a silly desire I had and answered my prayers. I love Him.

I just want to testify about the Book of Mormon. I know it is true. It is the word of God. It testifies of Jesus Christ and confirms the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Restoration. All objections rest on this Book. I love this book, whenever I read it I just feel happier and feel peace. I feel closer to Heavenly Father and learn so much through the Holy Ghost. I love this Book and know that it will change the world as it already is. I am so thankful for it-what a privilege it is to read it!

I just want to issue you all a quick challenge: Read the Book of Mormon a chapter a day for the next two years-till I come back, and hopefully beyond that. I promise to do the same:) Even if it''s hard and you can only get in a verse then I feel that that is a battle won! So yeah wanna do it? I promise that we will all have our testimonies strengthened, have peace and the Spirit and draw closer to our Heavenly Father. President Hinckley said, "Those who have read [the Book of Mormon] prayerfully, be they rich or poor, learned or unlearned, have grown under its power...Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hears...the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God'.

I don't know about you but if I was to read it those would be the exact things I'd wish for-stronger testimony, spiritual strength and desire to CTR, and the Spirit! Anywho, those are some of my thoughts and I just love the Book of Mormon, now more than ever, and this work. I hope you'll all try and do this and see the difference in your life. I also just want to say thanks for all of your love and support! My world is going to get turned upside down in a day or two. But I am so excited:) I am receiving more prayers right now at this time than I ever will again for the rest of my life-so thank you so much and know I appreciate it and am so grateful for all of you! I love you! And I hope you have an incredible week.

Love,

Elder Garlick

Tanner's Letter Sent on February 14, 2012

Howdy!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Hope you have a good one. Go on a fun date, eat some chocolates, or enjoy some Twilight or Pokemon valentine cards or something:) I hope that the past week has been a great one for you as it has for me. Well let's see what I did this week...I got the opportunity to host this week so that was real cool. It is surreal being the missionary that is hosting the new missionary and not the teary eyed missionary getting out of the car. Seems like it wasn't long ago that things were different in that regard. I enjoyed doing it. I got to escort an international missionary, help escort a sister, and then an elder-so I got a little taste of everything! The international missionary was from Mexico and I helped him with his bags and he didn't seem to have a whole ton. Which was humbling and I think so cool, I admire some of these missionaries who do so much to be here. They are incredible.

Anywho, also this week we got our travel plans!!!! So that was super exciting too. And crazy! We leave on the 21st of February and the travel time is going to be like 28 hours total! We fly to LA and have a 3 hour layover, and then to Hong Kong with a 5 hour layover, and then to Cambodia! Whoohoo! I am excited to go to China or at least say I was there:) But yeah, should be brutal-but I'm not dreading it at all.

Also, this week I got released from my assignment as a zone leader. Although now we are asked to help train the new ones who just got here this week and who actually are our new roommates. So that is pretty neat. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve as a zone leader. I learned so much about loving others and about leadership. I have never taken a leadership responsibility as seriously as I did this one and I really appreciated this opportunity to serve. I just learned so much and it really helped accelerate my growth. I love my branch so much and my district. There are some incredible missionaries that are going to do some great things in whose company I get to be pleasured with. So yeah it is kinda strange not having that responsibility anymore but not gonna lie it's kinda nice having just a little less to have to worry about for a week:)

Okay quick spiritual thought. Something that I saw was a Mormon message called "love one another" it was great and I'd recommend watching it! And that has been something that has been on my mind a lot the past couple of weeks. Developing Charity and love for others. The hymn "Love one another" has been stuck in my head a lot and i really like this scripture, John 13:34-35; "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." I believe that we are the happiest when we do that-turn outwards as Christ would and show love one to another. I have a testimony of this and have seen it in my life. Let us all follow His perfect example of love and find simple ways to show kindness and love to one another.

I love you! Thanks for all you do and for your prayers-they mean so much to me.

Love,

Elder Garlick