Blagging For

Un-Drunking the Town Drunk, Among Other Things

For the past several weeks we’ve been working with a man named Ornoir
Orlander Rodriguez who lives in a rundown little shack on the outskirts of
Rivera, Rivera, Uruguay. When we first started talking he was a hopeless
alcoholic that spent the money he was able to get by recycling plastic or
glass bottles and cardboard on tobacco and an alcoholic Brazilian beverage
called “caña”. He would walk around all day gathering these things and then
not even be able to buy a $20 UYU bus ticket. Not because he couldn’t work
or because there was no job market but because of his two addictions.
Before being an alcoholic Ornoir had a good job running tractors and bought
himself a decent-sized piece of land, before that he worked for the army in
Montevideo, Uruguay and was also well payed. The drink, unfortunately
destroyed his life.

The very first thing I said to him was, “God loves you and wants you to take
care of your body ;
will you stop drinking and smoking to make your life better?” He said yes.
Now, a few short weeks later he has stopped drinking and today is his last
cigarette. He is free. It has been so wonderful to see this man who nobody
expected ever to do anything with his life accept the gospel and turn into
a completely different person. Hes better, cleaner, happier, and closer to
God than ever before. He will be
baptizedthis Saturday at
6:00 PM UYST. I’m so excited!

These past few weeks have been really fun, working with Elder McDaniel (my
mission son*) finding all kinds of people to teach and help. One notably
funny experience was last Saturday when we were buying lunch from a trailer
on the side of the road and a drunk guy started asking us about what we do.
We explained the we aren’t spies and that we aren’t agents of the United
States, either. We shared a little about the gospel with him as he
continued to get himself drunk. At the end we said our goodbyes and he
shook my hand once, twice, took off my glasses, and a third time and rode
away on his motorcycle. It was great!

As you may remember I’m in Rivera, Rivera, Uruguay, one of the hottest
places in the entire country and its projected to get up to 40° C without
any rain to cool us off during the next month. That is unbelievably HOT! I
love this country but 40° C WITHOUT AC? That’s ridiculous!

But, despite the heat, I’m having tons of fun being a missionary in Uruguay
because preaching the gospel is so dang fun!

*For those unaware of this terminology a mission son is a missionary whom I
have trained, for now Elder McDaniel is my only begotten. But any other
missionaries that I have the opprotunity to train will also be my mission
sons.

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