Photo Update

These first two Elder Arnoczky calls the "Matrix" photos...




Here are some photos of Elder Arnoczky's district at the MTC




Beautiful scenery in Idaho!


Elder Arnoczky's district in Star

It's already been a month and a half!

Here is the latest email from Derek:

as i told mom, we got a free membership to a gym next to our house, that and the family we're teaching is getting baptized this Saturday at 1 are the highlights of my week.

sweet story was when we had an investigator who didnt read her assignment for the week because she was distracted by a 500 piece puzzle and when we went over there and she told us that we started working on the puzzle with her and finished it in like a half an hour lol. and since she didnt have any excuses she read and went to chruch this sunday haha. sunday is a crazy day. we start at 7 and go until 3. we go to 4 different wards and i got up and bore my testimony 4 times haha.

food here is really weird sometimes. we get fed sushi alot and also chinese, which neither ive tried before. surprising the sushi was pretty good, even the eel one haha.

i need to send my matrix picture to you so you can put it as my facebook picture. or my whistle pig hunting picture. XD i dont have my cord here tho, and i'm really not good at taking pictures at all.

some kid in the library just said i like you're sunglasses and i was like "thanks there not mine tho" and he was like "are they your girlfriends" and i was like "no, they're are my companions" and i just realized how gay that sounds because im in my p-day clothes and i don't have a tag on.XDDD

fathers day is coming up and i'll be sending a picture of me and Elder Meredith to dad in a card so at least you'll have that.

well im gunna go now. love you have a good week. tell vince hey

elder Arnoczky

also i asked if he went tracting a lot and what kind of car they had:

Do you go tracting a lot? no we dont go tracting at all because there are so many member referels

Do you and your companion have a car? yes we have a car. a 07 toyota corrola. it sucks haha

and here is the email to mom from him:

another sweet week! and this saturday a whole family we taught is getting baptized so thats also sweet. We get fed just fine and even when a person canceled on us i had the subway card you gave me and got subway that day.

remember when i said i was gunna get a weight because my bands broke? well instead of that i decided to do a lot of pushups and i fixed the bands good enough to do pull-up type moves. well anyway we've been eating good still and now we're running 3 miles a day. and after driving by a couple times, we decided to go in a local fitness gym and see the rates, the lady said it was a dollar a day and some other fees, so we were thinking "forget this" but then she said that the LDS missionaries had an account there and all we really needed was a key, which cost 20 dollars, and a lady in one of our wards gave us 20 bucks earlier in the day. so we got a free membership to a gym thats a tenth of a mile away from our place ,and its open 24/7 so if thats not cool idk what is.

so yup im still getting better at the lessons. and something else that cool is, everyone has trouble saying our last name so we've been getting everyone to call me Elder A, or Elder Awesome. and its catching on quite well cause im pretty awesome haha.

well if i think of anything else i'll put it in my email to megan. love you both. cya next week

2nd full week in Idaho!

June 1, 2010 Email:
Last month is referred to as ‘Miracle May’ by Elder Arnoczky. He says he committed 20-year-old ‘Becky’ to baptism 2 weeks ago and even though it was his first time doing that, he wasn’t a bit nervous. Last week he & his companion committed a family of 5 to baptism and to demonstrate their sincerity, the parents agreed to live separately until they are married. Then they received a call from a member yesterday who told them of her friend who is totally ‘golden’ and wants to be baptized. They are scheduled to begin teaching her over the next couple of weeks.

Every day begins with Elder Arnoczky & his companion running a mile and every evening is ended by running 2 miles. Last night, another set of missionaries spent the night @ their apartment. Today, they are all going to play kickball, capture the flag and then he is going to try sushi for the first time. I’m glad to see that he isn’t all work and no play!

Elder Arnoczky lost his camera cord so I had to send him a new one. He finally received it & has committed to taking a lot of pictures. If any of you have received photos from him and would be willing to share them on this blog, please send them to his email via Facebook and Megan will post them for all of us to view.

First full week in Idaho

Elder Arnoczky meets President & Sister Yardley who will be serving until June 30^th when their mission is complete and they return home. They sent a photo with a letter to Mom & Dad assuring them that they will take good care of Elder Arnoczky.

In a May 26^th email, Elder Arnoczky said that he is teaching every day and could be involved with his first baptism next week. The potential new member is a 20-year-old named Becky. He says there are also 3 people in the same family that he is helping teach who are also very close but not quite ready to make the baptism commitment. This past week he and his companion helped an investigator with some heavy-duty yard work for a couple of days. Overall, he is very busy because he & his companion support 5 wards!

Mom sent out a small address book & he said he is planning to write letters to some of you out there. Getting letters or packages are a big highlight of a missionary’s week.

Finally in Boise!

Elder Arnoczky has finally made it to Boise! Yesterday he flew there from Salt Lake, and was able to call Mom in the airport (which she loved). Today we got an email from him. Here it is...enjoy!

Hey just E-mailing you both to tell you i got to Boise okay. My trainers name is Elder Hopkins. He's from Raleigh N. Carolina, and he's pretty cool so far. When i got off the plane i met President and Sister Yardley, and went to there house for lunch, and then went to the mission home to review some of the rules and expectations in this mission. i had an interview with President Yardley and we took a picture and they're sending it home to you pretty soon. they're a really nice couple. and president yardley is really close to who else but Elder Holland. elder holland said he would do anything for his grandson to go to this mission, because of how great president yardley is.

After that i met my companion and we went to our place. its an apartment, but it looks like a house to me. My first area is called Star, and its mostly rich people around it but its weird our apartment is like right next to a chicken farm. and there's chicken out in our front yard lol. after i took my stuff to the place, we had a dinner appointment with a family, and that went pretty great, i got to share the spirtiual thought and after that we went to a "ward correlation" which is where the ward missionaries and mission leaders, talk about and plan how new members and investigators can get closer to being active members. i didnt have too much input since i have know idea who any of them are... but it was intresting to watch. then my companion and i, along with a ward missionary, went to an investigators house just to introduce ourselves.

i serve over part of the eagle stake, and i'm in charge of 5 wards. it's pretty sweet, cause we have like a full schedule today of lessons we're going to teach. And it's cool cause my area is close to Boise and i'm close enough that i'll be able to go to the Boise temple on P-day. I love you both and i'll email you next Tuesday

Love,

Elder Arnoczky

His address for the next two years is:

Elder Arnoczky
Idaho Boise Mission Office
1111 South Cole Road
Boise, ID 83709

2nd and Last week in the MTC

Elder Arnoczky reports that living at the MTC is an extremely busy day. It is quite a change from what he was accustomed to at home but he has welcomed a full schedule with open arms because he is learning a lot and has also been thoroughly enjoying the experience.

Every Tuesday evening a devotional is held at the MTC. Usually the speakers are very inspirational and highly motivational to their audience of new missionaries (aka, ‘greenies’).

Sometime over the weekend of May 8^th, Elder Arnoczky decided to watch a conference talk from October 2009 of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (Safety for the Soul from November 2009 Ensign). This message inspired him to read the Book of Mormon from 3^rd Nephi through Moroni so he immediately began to read that section and actually completed it in just a couple of days and says he gained a much better understanding.

Shortly before the devotional on May 11^th, Elder Arnoczky learned that there was going to be an Apostle speaking that evening. He & his companion arrived at the auditorium early so they could get a good seat. Needless to say, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that the evening devotional speaker turned out to be none other than Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The same man whose conference talk had inspired him to read the Book of Mormon just a few days prior.

Elder Arnoczky leaves the MTC early on the morning of Tuesday, May 18^th to board a plane destined for Boise, Idaho where he will finally begin his mission. He has expressed excitement many times in his letters home and that he cannot wait to begin the work. It may be another couple of weeks before new photos get posted to the blog because Elder Arnoczky hasn’t had the time nor the means to download his camera memory so he can send home a CD.

He has also expressed an interest to hearing from everyone. If you want to write a letter, send a card or a package, please send them via Priority or First Class so they can be forwarded to him. Packaged sent FedEx, UPS, DHL or parcel post cannot be forwarded to him and will stay at the mission office until someone has need to travel out to where he is actually living. Below is the mailing address to use for the next two years:

Elder Arnoczky

Idaho Boise Mission Office

1111 South Cole Rd

Boise, ID 83709