This week's letter

Greetings from Idaho!

Had a pretty good week this week.

We had our Interviews with the Mission President last Wednesday and those went pretty well.

And I went on exchanges with Elder Cruz from Ontario on thrusday we had a great time together

and i learned a lot from him. Friday morning we got our transfer calls and found out that me and

Elder Moe will both be staying in Weiser for another transfer.

Friday night we had the Baptism of Rene Gunari, shes such a sweet lady. we taught her all of the

lessons in 1 hour! Her baptism was a cool experience, there were so many people there that we

had to hold the service in the chapel! And there was a ton of non members there including our good

pal Father Victor!

The next day we needed to be in Ontario at 4 am so we could drive to Nampa by 5:15 and catch a

bus to get to twin falls to go hear Elder Russel M. Nelson speakso at 3:15 we drove all the way to ontario, picked up Elder Cluff and Gontier and then i had to

drive all the way to Nampa, and then get on the bus for a 3 hour bus ride to Twin

Falls. But it was awesome still, we got to see the whole mission! Elder

Hopkins, Elder Denning, Elder Claridge...everybody. and we all got to shake Russell m Nelsons hand,

and i was just amazed at how well he knows the scriptures, we were allowed to ask him questions and

he answered all of them immediatley with a scripture to back it up. i was impressed. and then we got a

picture with the whole mission to remember it forever!!

When we got back to Weiser finally i was so exhausted! just before i fell asleep we got a phone for the

Weiser 3rd ward secretary telling us that the speakers for there ward were sick and asked if we could

speak. So in 20 minutes i put together a talk on Faith and hope in these hard times, and passed out.

Of course that ward we needed to speak in was at 8:30 and i was still dead tired, but some how i was

able to give a pretty good 20 minute talk so im glad i have the Lord on my side cuz without Him it wouldve

been a disaster.

Well thats all i have these week to share. Have a slendid week peeps.

Elder Derek Andrew Arnoczky

This week:

"Christmas is coming up way fast. This transfer just ended, and Elder Claridge got sent down to Burley. He was a really good companion, I'll miss him. But the cool thing is I get to serve with Elder Moe (pronounced Moy) this transfer! Me and Elder Moe came out at the same time, and I was super pumped when i found out i would be serving with him next transfer.

Weiser is doing good! We have a lot of people just flocking to us to hear the gospel. Makes our job easy! Especially for winter where the last thing i wanna be doing is knocking doors! We were introduced to a young couple this week who really has a strong interest to hear the gospel, and get this.... the guys name is Doogie Houser lol. We are also teaching a young man who before he even talked to us, got up and bore his testimony and told us that he wanted to serve a mission! Now thats a golden investigator!"

New letter from Elder Arnoczky!

We did make it to Boise last tuesday, and we're going to nampa today. we ate at PF changs in boise last week, and we went on the intent to hang out with Elder hopkins but that never happened......maybe at christmas. Weiser got slammed with snow.... we got a crazy amount. havent gotten in any crashes but did get stuck in front of our house because the plow pushed like 5 feet of snow in front of it lol

One more week of this transfer....it's hard to believe. Time goes really fast when you’re having fun. This week was one of the most productive weeks I've seen! We got 5 new investigators! Two 17 year old boys, Bryan and Ulises. Both of them have sincere desire to learn the gospel, and Bryan has even agreed to Baptism already! We also began teaching a family that has just moved from Utah, the Rock family. We helped them shovel out their driveway and in return they let us teach them the first lesson. They were really engaged and even made it to church and enjoyed that also!

Last week i went on exchanges with Elder Olivas who has been out for about 5 weeks. We decided to do some door knocking over at an apartment complex, after knocking a couple of doors we noticed a trend......They were all old. Everyone in that apartment was historic haha. We had a lot of doors slammed in our face, but i believe we went there for a reason. As we knocked on one of the doors we heard a faint "Hello, Hello, hello" and so we knocked again, and we heard it again.. And we asked if they were alright. and we just heard it again. I was thinking it was a parrot lol. but we decided to walk in and we found an elderly lady laying on the floor, she had tried to get up and knocked over a lamp and fell. The lamp had broken on a curtain and the curtain was beginning to singe. So we cleaned up the mess, and picked her up and put her back in her chair. Although we had 10 people call and complain about us and we're kicked out of the complex, i still think we were able make a difference.

Earlier this week i was very "mail trunky" And i think i might have been cured. i got two packages, some letters from some friends and family, and a letter from Elder Williams! I wrote him almost 5 months ago, It took 2 1/2 months to get down to Guatemala, and 2 1/2 more for his letter to get to me! It totally made my transfer to hear from him, and he sent me some pesos!

The transfer to Weiser

Elder Arnoczky has indeed been transferred to Weiser, Idaho. His living conditions are much better than before as he no longer sleeps on a basement floor and there are only 2 Elders in the small house which, coincidentally, happens to be right next to a gas station.

During his second week in Weiser, Derek participated in a odd service project with the Payette, ID Elders in their area. He’s not sure who the benefactor was or why the elders would be helping with something like this, but he did it anyway. This ‘service project’ consisted of catching a chicken, holding it like a football in his arm and killing it by snapping its neck and then plucking the feathers out. It made him sick for at least a week afterwards.

On P-day this week, he went hiking in the mountains for the first time on Indian Head Mountain with his companion, Elder Claridge and a ward mission leader. Derek loves hiking and he said he thoroughly enjoyed that experience. Hopefully he took pictures and sends them home so we can share with all of you.

Elder Arnoczky and his companion currently have 20 investigators so he has basically been teaching all day every day. They don’t get to teach their investigators once/week because there just isn’t enough time. He said it is very tiring…….but he LOVES it!

Here is an excerpt from this week’s very small email from Derek:

“We had a really powerful lesson with an investigator. We had him pray about baptism, and after we talked to him he was still hesitant, but we had him set a goal date, and set it for Dec 4th and he said he knows he can be ready by then. We're also getting really close with some other investigators. Before both of us got transferred here, President Cannon told us that there was a lot of potential and he felt good about us up here. And now we are able to see what he meant because there is a lot of progressing happening.”

Please keep writing to Elder Arnoczky or send him a Thanksgiving card. He REALLY appreciates hearing from all of you but lately he just doesn’t have the time (or the mental energy) to write back right away. Receiving cards or letters from home is something he looks forward to every week.

Out 6 Months!!!

Elder Arnoczky has been out on his mission for 6 months!! That's 1/4 of his total mission!! It's a missionary tradition to burn a tie on the 6th month anniversary of being out, so we're eager to hear how that went for Derek! This past week he has been in Weiser, ID filling in for an elder who is sick. He's not sure if he'll be transferred there for good, but for now that's where he's at. Here are a few pictures Elder Arnoczky has sent home.

Elder Hopkins and Elder Arnoczky @ Becky's baptism during his first month in Star.

Feeding a bobcat.


Sitting on a member's vintage car


A stray dog found on pday.


About to eat a missionary cookie.

Birthday in a box received from the Fasnacht family (9/14/10)

This is the basement Derek called home for the past 4 months. His desk is on the left.

Bed is on the left.

About to sample chicken feet.


A plate full of chicken feet...yum!

Middleton District Elders

Elder Sanders and Elder Arnoczky with an investigator

About to teach a lesson

"The field is white..."

6 months down, there are another 18 months to go. He always appreciates letters or cards (who doesn't love getting mail!). You can write to him at:
Elder Arnoczky
Idaho Boise Mission Office
1111 South Cole Road
Boise, ID 83709

Happy Birthday Elder Arnoczky!

Ever since I can remember, Mom and Dad have been playing a "birthday song" for Derek and I each year on our birthdays (usually to wake us up.) It's a cute little song that our Grandma found and that we've waited for each birthday morning. Anyway, we were able to send that song to one of the families that is in one of Derek's wards to play for him on his birthday and they got it on video!

No longer a greenie!

Elder Arnoczky has been out for 4 months and has been busy at work in Boise! A week ago Mom sent him some questions about mission life so far, and here are a few of them:

What are your companions’ names & where do they come from?
Answer: Elder Sanders from Alberta. and Elder Tukuafu from Tonga

Do you get to see your mission president very much? How often?
Answer: Nope only at Zone Conference and at Interviews

Is the basement you live in part of someone’s home or is it an apartment?
Answer: its a house and the Zone Leaders live upstairs. so 5 missionaries in total live at that house

Have you had to give any talks yet? Tell me about them.
Answer: no but i got up and bore my testimony about 5 times in 5 different wards

Do you have any baptisms coming up soon? Tell me about them.
Answer: no baptisms soon. BUT we have a ton of new investigators and we will have some baptisms in the future

He also shared a dog story...

"we almost got attacked by a dog the other day! we were checking out a potential investigator and there was a vicious dog outside growling at us and lunging with its teeth out and so we were wondering what to do. Elder Tukuafu and elder sanders were just afraid so i had to pick up its ball and throw it into its cage and it went in and so i ran to close the gate and accidentally ran through into the cage with it and backed off and i was able to close the gate. and then the person we were trying to contact wasn't home...."

Loving the field...

Elder Arnoczky has been loving the Boise area! Here are some excerpts from Derek’s June 29th email:

I prayed a lot to help me be a better missionary and to know how to bring His children back to him. And so I made sure that I was living worthily to do that, getting up on time and doing my studies every morning, and my prayer was really answered yesterday, we had just a really successful day!

We actually went tracting in this area and we were able to make appointments with three people!

One of the people was a ‘golden investigator’ who has already read the Book of Mormon and pretty much knows it’s true and wants to be baptized. I got to teach her a lot of the lesson and share my testimony with her and I could tell that she already had a testimony and I told her that, and she really felt the spirit. So she'll be baptized really soon then. That is super exciting!

I’m glad that I prayed, and was able to live worthy to have such an uplifting day. I would just like to encourage both Mom and Dad, and Megan and Vince to continue to read together every night, and to pray together to build your faith stronger, and if you’re striving to be obedient, Heavenly Father will bless you always.

For the 4th, the town he is in had a 4th of July parade and of course him and his companion got fed a lot. Also he has a new mission president, President Cannon. They were kind enough to email all of the missionaries' parents to introduce themselves and send a photo they took while meeting them. Here is Elder Arnoczky with President and Sister Cannon:



He's also been busy at work and has many baptisms scheduled for this month! He says there are so many referrals, they don't even go tracting! Which is probably a good thing since the weather there has been in the 90's!

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

1st week in the MTC

Elder Arnoczky had a wonderful first week in the MTC. His first companion, Elder Meredith, is from Texas and they both get along great! He mentioned in his first email that he didn't think he would pick up teaching as well and as quickly as he did. Heavenly Father is of course inspiring and watching out for him! His pday is on monday, so that's when we should be hearing from him again!

Also here is his mailing address at the MTC in case you want to write him a letter:

Elder Derek Arnoczky
MTC Mailbox #204 ID-BOI 0518
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Elder Arnoczky enters the MTC

Wednesday April 28th we dropped Derek off at the MTC. When we drove up there were small groups of missionaries with a numbered sign by them....their district. We were given the number 24 and told to keep driving until we saw that number. As we drove by the missionaries cheered us on and did the wave. Finally we reached our stop. Derek got out and was greeted by some missionaries who had been waiting for him, while one of the helpers came over to my mom's side of the car and told her they were going to take great care of Derek. We said a quick goodbye and drove off. It happened fast, but we were told that the old way of dropping off missionaries was much more difficult. He is finally ready to begin!

Derek pre-mission part 9: Salt Lake City

On tuesday the 27th, Derek and Mom were able to visit the Salt Lake Temple and other sites around Salt Lake.

Derek in front of the Salt Lake Temple


Mom and Derek in front of the temple


Derek in front of the Tabernacle

Derek pre-mission part 8: family get-together #3

Sunday the 25th of April we got together at Aunt Jane's house for dinner and a visit.


Rob, Savannah, Dani, and Jodie


Kaden and Rachel


Tawny, Teresa, and Tayia


Derek and Rob


Derek and Rachel


Derek and Teresa


Derek and Tayia


Derek and Aunt Jane


Me, Mom, and Derek

Since the younger cousins haven't all hit their next growth spurt yet, we decided to take a picture with them next to Derek. Although Gatlin wasn't in the picture, I'm guessing he will grow a lot while Derek is gone!


We went outside to play a little basketball, and of course Derek showed us how good he is. (It's just not fair!).


And he helped Tayia do a slam dunk!

Derek pre-mission part 7: being set apart as an elder

Elder Arnoczky and the stake president.


Family and stake president (and toby) with Elder Arnoczky

Derek pre-mission part 6: family get-together #2

Friday the 23rd was the second of the three family get-togethers, this time with Mom's side of the family. Derek, Mom, me, Uncle Mike, Aunt Sherry, Uncle Mark, and Bryan went to Scoreboards for dinner.



Derek's friends also stopped by to say goodbye.