LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Escaping Addiction Through the Gift of Dreams: Orlando Mora's Story - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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When years of crippling addiction tighten its grip, can a sliver of lasting change still exist?

For carpenter, devoted husband, and former addict Orlando Mora, the path out of darkness was illuminated not just through sobriety and faith, but by a heaven-sent “gift of dreams.” From his first prayer of desperation to the day he opened the door to two unexpected missionaries, Orlando discovered that God’s guidance comes in many forms—sometimes through gentle impressions of the Spirit, and sometimes through vivid dreams that bring clarity, comfort, and renewed purpose.

In this uplifting episode of Latter-day Lights, Orlando recounts the power of divine intervention that guided him from a dark “basement” of hopelessness to the bright promise of a new beginning. From his first steps into a detox center, to the moment he felt Christ’s arms around him at the Mesa Arizona Temple, Orlando’s story testifies that no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. Even in our deepest struggles, we can find ourselves led by the hand of a loving Savior who has never once left our side.

Orlando’s journey brings hope to anyone seeking to turn their life around. Tune in to discover how, even in the quiet corners of the night, the Lord can reach our hearts, rewrite our stories, and remind each of us that we are never truly alone.

*** Please SHARE Orlando's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode, visit: https://youtu.be/BH8vk9WqE1g

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Scott Brandley:

Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley:

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode we're going to hear how one man's journey to find the gospel showed him that God can work miracles in anyone. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and we're really excited to introduce our special guest, orlando Mora, to the show. Welcome, orlando, thank you.

Alisha Coakley:

I'm glad to be here. We're glad to have you. Scott didn't get the green memo today. You and I've got some green going on here. Are you on your wall and Scott's throwing us off with his blue? I?

Orlando Mora:

got a plan right. I got a green plan. I don't understand until you bring it up. He does have a green plan.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh no, that's a. Really I love when I see like really there you go, scott. We just need Scott to, like whoosh, go through the jungle. Oh no, I love that wall, that wall pattern that you have back there.

Orlando Mora:

That is really cool so yeah, that's leftover from our youngest son, daniel who's now in college.

Alisha Coakley:

Nice Well, I like it, it's very fun. Thank you, yeah Well, orlando, welcome officially to Latter-day Lights. Why don't you tell our guests just a little about yourself?

Orlando Mora:

Well, I'm a 65-year-old Spanish gentleman. I just turned 65 on Thanksgiving. Carol and I have been married. We just had our 25th year anniversary.

Scott Brandley:

Oh, wow.

Orlando Mora:

We met in a singles ward in Tempe Arizona. We have two boys. One is 25, has been married three years, and his wife is Isabella, and they have no kids yet. Darn it and Daniel is our youngest.

Orlando Mora:

He's 23 and he's in second year of college. I am a carpenter by trade. I mostly excel in remodeling bathrooms and kitchens. I just love to work with my hands and create things, cool things for people. Some of my hobbies are I love photography. Recently I got into making cement planters giant pots for planters which is really hard, but I enjoy it a lot. It's very therapeutic and it gives me a sense of accomplishment Cool. We also love to garden and I just can't wait for spring. Until it gets warm, things start budding and popping out and I just get so excited. I wake up early in the morning and wait for the sun to come up to greet it so I can go outside and put my hands in dirt.

Orlando Mora:

I love to cook. My grandma taught me to cook when I was a young kid and a teenager, and so I love cooking for us and for visitors or for anyone. Mostly we cook for the missionaries. Now, my calling now in church is that I run a little Spanish group, um, in the in uh in our ward, and I've been doing that for about a year. Um, it's slower, it's it's growing slower than I would like, but things don't happen on my timeline. They happen on God's timeline.

Alisha Coakley:

So I guess I just have to learn to be more patient or just bring more food. Food brings people in, so you just cook your food and invite them in Linger Longers every Sunday. That's what.

Orlando Mora:

I'm waiting for. I'm about having a buffet at the Spanish group so that we can have one.

Orlando Mora:

But I don't think the church would allow it. So Carol and I are now loners because our kids are gone, and it was a hard thing, because I love having my kids at home. If I could have them live here with their spouses I would, but that's probably not going to happen. So we miss them a lot, but they're doing good, we're proud of them. They're good boys and they're doing good things, and Carolyn and I are slowly but surely getting used to being by ourselves. Carolyn's a retired teacher, but she still subs because she gets bored at home doing nothing, and so she had some amazing experience with kidney gardeners in the last two weeks. But that's a whole other podcast and that's about it.

Scott Brandley:

I love that. You guys are busy. I know, yeah, yeah, sounds like sounds like a lot of fun, though. Scott's getting ready to lose half of his kids to marriage here in just the next few months, I'm sure I've got two kids that are getting married within a month apart from each other, so that's gonna be a little crazy, but yeah yeah yeah congratulations thanks. Well, we're really excited to hear about your conversion story, orlando. So why don't we turn the time over to you and tell us where your story begins, my friend?

Orlando Mora:

Okay, thanks. So, like I said, I'm a Spanish gentleman. I was born in the island, in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. It was rough back in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. It was rough Back in the 60s. My family were farmers and so making a living was extremely hard. One of the things that happened in our farm in Puerto Rico is that one time when our only cow gave birth and the calf was stillborn and the mother cow kind of went crazy and killed herself.

Scott Brandley:

And my brother and I, we were.

Orlando Mora:

I think I was about still three or four years old my brother's four years older, so he's a little older we ran and hid in the house and sometime later, because we were afraid of what happened we've never experienced that as little children, yeah. And sometime later my grandmother found us and showed us a picture of Christ, and I guess she saw how scared we were. And she showed us a picture of Christ and she told us that if we're ever scared or lonely or hurting or discouraged, that we should pray to him and that he would always help us. So I never forgot that and I often found my grandmother on her knees, uh, praying the rosary.

Orlando Mora:

And I never forgot that I always remembered that about my grandma. And so we weren't big church goers we we were. We lived in the rainforest. Our nearest neighbor was probably five miles away, and so we moved to New York around 1963, to Havistraw, New York, which is a beautiful county along the Hudson River Valley, 30 miles north of Manhattan. And I remember one of the first things I saw on television was Kennedy's funeral, really, wow, yeah.

Orlando Mora:

Kennedy's funeral, really Wow. And Martin Luther King who always said that he had a dream. So I just remember Martin Luther King and President Kennedy. So when I started school, soon after we moved to New York, I started kindergarten and some of the kids were mean and they bullied me on the playground and I had one friend, julio, who would stick up for me and he would eventually. I don't know where he would come from, but he would just show up and he would get between me and the bullies and he would hold his fist up and he was like this little angel kid, julio. And we're still friends.

Orlando Mora:

We talk to each other on Facebook and we're still friends. We talk to each other on Facebook. I learned later on that his parents had enrolled him in karate, and so he was a little karate kid and he knew how to defend himself, and to this day he has a really large karate studio in Dominican Republic, karate International and he does really well.

Orlando Mora:

That's awesome. And so I had struggles in school. I just could not remember assignments. I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember. If the teacher gave us spoke more than three sentences, I was lost. I was good with one instruction. If you gave me one instruction, I was okay, but if you gave me more than one instruction, I was lost, and so I had a hard time in school. I had a hard time in school. Now I've learned why.

Orlando Mora:

It's because I had experienced some childhood abuse at home. So I had PTSD since childhood but I've never known that until a few years ago. So I've lived with complex PTSD all my life and have never known it, and so it's kind of interesting I think it's a testimony that God's been watching over me since I was a little child. Yeah, I had one teacher in elementary school, mrs Weiss, who was the most kindest teacher that I've ever known, because I struggled in class. She noticed and she would often come and just walk behind me and lean over and whisper instructions in my ear. She'd say something like remember, we did this last week, orlando, and this is what we do and we do this step and then we do this step. And she was so kind that way and I never forgot her. So moved on to middle school and I made some more friends In sixth grade.

Orlando Mora:

I remember that I couldn't play sports because I got a back injury. So I was very close to our PE coach and he also coached the football team and so he allowed me to be a manager on the team and I would carry stuff and do stuff to help the team that way and do stuff to help the team that way. And so I remember, at the end of our eighth grade year, coach rewarded us four managers and took us to an amusement park and one of the kids we got on on, he gave us a roll of tickets and told us to meet him back here and in a couple of hours. And so I remember that the four of us ran and, uh, rented a rowboat and one of the boys rolled up a cigarette and this is the first time that I've seen this and so he lit it up and passed it around. It is the first time that I've seen this, and so he lit it up and passed it around. It's the first time I smoked pot.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh my gosh.

Orlando Mora:

And I was yeah. You're sixth grade.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow.

Orlando Mora:

Yeah, and soon after that we were smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh man.

Orlando Mora:

And smoking pot at that age and there was something about it that was good for my brain. I don't know what it was, but I think that it helped me in a strange way to maybe not feel so anxious or nervous about things.

Alisha Coakley:

Right.

Orlando Mora:

So I went through school. I got through school with some really hard struggles and drinking and smoking pot, I don't think helped me at all. You know, maybe I thought that it did, but it really didn't. It really didn't. By the time I graduated high school I was already drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and pot on a regular basis and had already experimented with other drugs. Oh gosh, I think the thing that got me through high school because I wasn't a good student, I didn't have any good grades. My counselor suggested that I join a trade school and so.

Orlando Mora:

I qualified for the carpentry class and it's something that we did on our last two years of high school. I would go in the mornings to another school to learn carpentry and I loved working with my hands and so I excelled in the carpentry class and I represented our school in a state competition, which was pretty cool, and I came in like 13th place out of 25 kids. And I came in like 13th place out of 25 kids and so that was kind of fun and I looked forward to that every day, going to a carpentry class, and I was a top student in the class and I got an award. And when I graduated I also got a partially paid scholarship to go to Dale High University Architectural School in Pennsylvania. Yeah, but I never made it there because shortly after high school a bunch of us got arrested for having pot on us and we got in trouble and I was sentenced to four weekends in jail and five years probation and so that also ruined my chances for going into the Air Force, which I had signed up for and qualified to be a jet air or a hydraulic specialist, but they wouldn't let me go because I had that stain on my record. So I continued to after graduation. I continued to work in the building construction field and I learned a lot of stuff and I excelled and I loved working with my hands and I loved repairing stuff and fixing stuff. And I loved repairing stuff and fixing stuff and my drug use got worse and worse and worse.

Orlando Mora:

I got to, I think, about five years after graduation I got a job.

Orlando Mora:

I got a job In a very ritzy, plush apartment complex which is about just a 20-minute drive from my house and I remember being really nervous because I was working in apartments now and oftentimes a homeowner would be there and so I was used to working in industrial type stuff before and not really in homes when people were home, and so this was kind of new for me working in a residential and sometimes, oftentimes with the housewife or the husband at home.

Orlando Mora:

And so I was really nervous. And I remember one day I just drove to a quiet spot in a parking lot and I prayed for God to help me because I love the job. But I was so nervous I thought that I was going to mess up and get fired. And I remember praying, sincerely, praying for God to help me to excel, to do well, and I was never nervous, ever again, and I just excelled and people learned to love me and I learned to love the tenants and they would call the office and give compliments to my boss about how Orlando came into our house and he went our closet and he fixed the damaged ceiling and when he was finished he put all my 32 pairs of shoes back in order. And that was one of the stories. She had all her shoes in a big pile.

Orlando Mora:

And so I just couldn't leave them in the big pile. So I just organized them in pairs.

Orlando Mora:

And so that little story got around and people learned to like me, and all along my addictions were getting worse and worse and I got into cocaine and cocaine, and it just by the time I was 35 years old. I couldn't function without having alcohol or drugs in my system. My system was so used to having that medication in it that I couldn't function without it. And so I think I was 35 years old and had worked at this the name of the place was Bonaire. I'd worked there 12 years and was doing really well, but the addictions were killing me, and so there were times where I just didn't want to live that way anymore. I just wanted to die. I was too chicken to kill myself, but I just remember thinking it would be easier to die than to just live like this because I could not get the thoughts.

Orlando Mora:

I could not go two days without drugs and alcohol. So I was pretty desperate and it got to the point where I couldn't function at work anymore because my body needed the drugs in order to function. And so I remember, I took a leave of absence, a medical leave of absence from work, and I had lost all my material things. I had several vehicles which I lost and sold for drugs. I was starting to sell all my tools for drugs and just about everything I had I was selling for drugs. I was starting to sell all my tools for drugs and just about everything I had I was selling for drugs and lost my apartment and just lost everything. And my mom took me in and I was living with my mom and I took a leave of absence from work and I was just a mess. I just wanted to die.

Orlando Mora:

And it was winter, January, February 1995. I was watching the OJ Simpson trial on television and a commercial came on about this book, the Book of Mormon, and so somehow I just was attracted to that for long enough to where I called the 800 number and I remember speaking to a girl and she just sounded like an angel and she said sure, we'll send you the book, and I just got a really good feeling about it. I thought that this book could help me and help my family be normal, and so I thought I would get the book over the mail. But it never came through the mail and I forgot about it. And one day these two guys showed up at my door with white shirts and ties. And these two handsome young men and I think I was hungover that day.

Orlando Mora:

I think they had called first and made an appointment. And I actually made an appointment and I was excited. But then I went out drinking and by the time they got there I was hungover that day and I told Grandma come to the door and shoo him away. My grandma went to the door and said Orlando Nostaki? He said Orlando's not here. And so that happened probably more times than it should have.

Orlando Mora:

I think I would make appointments with them and they drove because there were no chapels or LDS chapels where I lived. They came from New Jersey. These poor guys are making a really big effort and they're trying over an hour to get here to to go to hand me the book of mormon personally, and I was just shooing them at the door. Well, I'd sent my grandma because I was too chicken and shamed and I was messed up and so I think it could have been the fourth or fifth time, I can't remember.

Orlando Mora:

But I let them in and I apologized for the other times. And I was still watching the OJ Simpson trial and they were about to introduce the glove, a special piece of evidence, and I was so excited about it, and the missionaries asked me to shut the TV off so we can have a prayer. And I was like what? So I was a little bothered by that, but I did it, and so my grandma took off.

Scott Brandley:

She went and hid in the kitchen.

Orlando Mora:

We were Roman Catholics and we've never had missionaries in our house or seen missionaries, we've never heard of the Mormon church. And when the elders had these little flashcards and they were showing me pictures, and they showed me a picture of Joseph Smith and told me about Joseph Smith, and to me he looked like the guy on the Quaker Oats box, you know, the old man, yeah, so I just thought, I just thought that was so funny that this guy looked like the Quaker Oats guy. So they were teaching me about stuff and had the little flashcards and I was just thinking, oh my gosh, these poor guys are so brainwashed, what are they talking about? Who is this Joseph Smith?

Orlando Mora:

And it was all crazy, it was just, I just thought it was all crazy, but I was respectful and so I listened and we got through that lesson, through that lesson and, um, and I was so glad when they were leaving because I was uh, I was going to want it to go get high. So I followed them outside and we were shaking hands and I said something like uh, uh, I like to travel. How can I do what you guys do and go on a mission? And they just looked at me and said, maybe someday you will. And I remember looking in their eyes and I don't know why I felt, and I knew in my insides that they were true men of God.

Alisha Coakley:

I saw that.

Orlando Mora:

I saw Christ in their eyes and I don't know why God allowed a drunk and a person as messed up as I was to see that. But I never forgot that, and so, about a year later, I OD'd on a bunch of alcohol and cocaine and I was able to drive myself to my mom's house from where I was, and my mom and her boyfriend took me to the hospital. His name is Pat. His real name is Pasquale, but we called him Pat. They drove me to the hospital and miraculously, I didn't die but I wanted to.

Orlando Mora:

And I remember the doctors and nurses were talking about something about detox and I've never heard of this. I didn't know that other people suffered with the stuff that I suffered. I thought that I was alone in this, that nobody else goes through this. I was just the only one in this that nobody else goes through this.

Orlando Mora:

I was just the only one. But at the hospital I learned that there's doctors and places that help people like that, and so I begged them to put me into detox that's what they talked about our detox unit and they said they didn't have a bed available. It was a very popular detox in the Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, new York, and so I offered to paint all their homes on the inside and out if they would find me a bed and detox, because I was so excited to have a chance to live a normal life All I ever wanted was to have a normal life and so the nurse said that she would be right back to hold tight. And I think she came back after an hour and she said we found you a bed. And it all happened pretty fast and, like I said, I was 35 years old and I've been doing drugs since I was in middle school, drinking and smoking and doing cocaine, freebasing, smoking cocaine, and so I remember saying goodbye to Mom and Pat and the nurse took me with a security guard.

Orlando Mora:

I don't know why they had a security guard, but they went through doors that steel doors that locked and you could not once you went into detox, you were locked in and you couldn't get out and I thought that was a little worrisome. Even though I was excited to get some help, I was worried that I couldn't get out of there if.

Orlando Mora:

I wanted to Get out of here if I wanted to. So they brought me up and did stuff and then took me to my room and I remember I found a Bible in the nightstand of my room and I was so scared, I was terrified and I held the Bible and I just curled up into the bed like in a fetal position and I just kept praying to God.

Orlando Mora:

Just please help me to get through this. Just please help me to get through this. I might get a little emotional, it's okay. And so I fell asleep that way and I remember waking up. The nurse woke me up the next, and so I fell asleep that way and I remember waking up. The nurse woke me up the next morning and said you have to go to group. You can't just lay around and sleep all day. And so I was so mad I thought I could just rest there as long as I wanted, but that's not the case. As long as I wanted, but that's not the case. So a group is you go to a big room and you sit around and I think there were probably 35 of us in the detox unit at one time and so you sit around in a big circle and you just go around and sort of like an AA meeting and you just talk about whatever. And I just thought to myself I'm not going to tell these strangers anything about my personal life.

Orlando Mora:

I don't even know who they are, and so that was kind of my attitude in the beginning.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, yeah.

Orlando Mora:

And I just kind of sat and observed and watched and after the second or the third day I just remember being so happy. I've never, ever, felt happiness like that in my entire life because I was actually clean and sober for two or three days and I just never, never been able to do that, ever in 20 years, because I've been drinking and drugging for 20 years. All the other, all the other people there, thought that I was the craziest guy that ever met, because all I did was smile and I just was so happy to be there. And so these are people that are going through detoxing and going through withdrawals from heroin and all kinds of stuff and they were suffering bad with all the withdrawals and I never felt any of that. I never went through that. That was. One of the miracles that I experienced is that.

Orlando Mora:

I never had any withdrawal symptoms at all. I went from being addicted to cocaine and alcohol and drugs and in three days I just went from that to being happy without any withdrawal symptoms.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, my goodness, and.

Orlando Mora:

I didn't realize that. Then this is stuff that I learned. You know, five, ten years later I didn't realize what was happening to me at the time and so, uh it's. The time in the detox seemed to have gone by so fast. I wanted to stay there because I know it was the happiest I've ever felt. But after 28 days you get moved out and the doctors recommended that I go to a special transitional living center and halfway house and they had several of them with beds available at my release date. But the problem was that I bought drugs in those neighborhoods.

Orlando Mora:

And so I felt like if I go there, I'm not going to make it. And so the and I explained this to the counselors. I said, and one of them was in my mother's block on the corner. And so one of the other miracles is that a bed opened up in Arizona at the time that I was talking to the counselor and she came over. The nurse came over and said there's a bed in Arizona. If you can get a ticket to Arizona, there's a bed there in a place called the House Inc. And it's on Center Street and Main Street, just a quarter mile from the Mesa Temple. And so I called my mom, she got me a ticket, I went home, I had a turkey dinner with my grandma, my mom and Pat.

Orlando Mora:

I slept that night and the next morning they took me to the airport and I had a change of clothing and about $9 in my pocket. I got on the plane to Arizona. I wasn't afraid. I was a little nervous, but I was so happy to be sober, that's all I focused on, was so happy to be sober, that that's all I focused on.

Orlando Mora:

And so, uh, it was december 17th 1996 and I arrived at the house in mesa, arizona, and they showed me to my quarters and they went through all the rules, this whole sheet about 30 rules that you have to live by or they throw you out. And so one of my roommates, bobby he's from Pennsylvania, he was a heroin addict. He came into my room as soon as they followed me in there and he said hey, you want to go see this temple lights tonight? And I was like you know, it was about Christmas time and they just finished setting up all the lights. And if you're not familiar with the Mesa temple area, they hang lights on all the palm trees for a quarter mile in each direction and the city of Mesa, quarter mile in each direction, and the city of Mesa hangs all kinds of lights.

Orlando Mora:

They have a pretty big Christmas spirit and I've never seen anything like that. So I met Bobby after dinner and we started walking toward Main Street and then we turned and went towards the temple and the lights were just. I've never seen anything like that, it was just so. I just thought, wow, these people love Christ a lot, that they spent all this time and money hanging all these lights. And I remember we got to the point where we could see the little building it was the visitor center, but I didn't know what it was at the time and I remember seeing a statue of Christ from a quarter mile away and my eyes just became glued to that statue. So and I just I was tripping as I walked because I just could not get my eyes off of the statue and I just walked and watched them. And when I got to the flagpole, bobby said I'm not going in there. Bobby was familiar with the Mormons and he wouldn't mind being part of it. He said I'll meet you back here in a while, bro. So I said okay.

Orlando Mora:

So I walked into the visitor center and I was just staring at the statue and I remember the sister missionaries walked up and I didn't know they were missionaries. I didn't know where I was. I kind of knew this is where all the Mormons live at this time. And so the sister said you want to go on a tour? And I said sure. And I was just staring at the Christus and I remember the curtains closed, closed and the lights dimmed and then a narration came on and a little bit into the narration everything went black. I couldn't see anything and I felt the weight of Christ's arms on my shoulders and he whispered in my ear your journey's over. And then the lights were back on and the sister missionaries were asking me all kinds of questions. So how did the tour feel? And I was like I can't even talk. I didn't know what just happened.

Orlando Mora:

I just kept repeating what he said to me over and over and over in my head, so I would never forget it, because I wasn't sure what happened and I didn't know where Bobby was. I don't know how I got home that night because I didn't know where I lived from there, but I got home and the next morning I didn't remember that that happened.

Orlando Mora:

I think Heavenly Father brought it to my forgetfulness because he didn't want me sharing that in a halfway house full of addicts that were recovering from stuff, and some of them were mean and just you know not nice people, and so I found myself going down to the temple on a daily basis, to the visitor center, sometimes three or four times a day, and the sister missionaries are so nice At that time.

Orlando Mora:

You can go in a little room and watch movies. They put movies on for you and I remember I watched Lamb of God. I don't know how many times, it could have been a hundred or more. It was my favorite Soon after I started taking the lessons and the missionaries were so excited to teach me because they said that I was so attentive and I had a lot of questions, and it was just so exciting to have a person that was so interested and it was just a really amazing experience. One of the things that I remember is that sometimes the lessons felt like it was something that I already knew inside and they were bringing it to my memory.

Orlando Mora:

It wasn't like something not everything, but some of the stuff. I felt like I already know that. So, that was. That was very interesting. It's so cool, and so I was baptized on May 30th of 1997. And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh my goodness. So tell me like when. So when did you meet your wife and all that you said you? You met her when you guys were in school.

Orlando Mora:

So I've never been married and I thought I would never be married just because you know the life that I lived. But I had some good neighbors. I moved out of the halfway house about six months later and I was working for a guy that owned the halfway house buildings who was LDS. He was a really kooky guy but he was the nicest guy ever. He was a member of the church and he would come often to find men to help him on his projects for the halfway house. He'd been through a similar halfway house himself. He was an alcoholic and so between him and his family they kind of helped me to stay active. And I had another neighbor friend who took me to my first fireside and I thought I was going to a campground and they were going to have a big fire.

Orlando Mora:

I didn't know what a fireside was Roasting some marshmallows. Well, yeah, and so, because he said you have to wear Sunday clothes, and I said, well, we're going to a fire. What am I going to wear Sunday clothes for? He says you'll see. And so, mitch Johnson, we're going to a fire. What am I going to wear Sunday clothes for? He says you'll see. And so, mitch Johnson, we're still friends, he's just the best guy. And he took me to this fireside.

Orlando Mora:

And this is a singles, I think it was 35 through 60-year-old singles thing, 35 through 60 year old singles thing, and so there were probably two thirds women and one third men and I thought, oh my gosh, I've died and gone to heaven. I'm going to be married soon. I was so. It was so cool. And so Mitch always looked out for me and made sure that I was doing okay and, like I said, he took me to my first fireside and other things I remember at the end of the fireside everybody was folding chairs and putting them away and I said don't they have janitors that do this? Why are we doing this? You know, it's just I've never seen we didn't do service work the way I grew up like that, and so that was pretty interesting.

Orlando Mora:

And so I was preparing to go to the temple and I went to the temple about a year after I was baptized and started going to that singles ward and met Carol one day at a Saturday night dance. She was selling tickets and she was sitting there in a and I could see a lot of her legs. She had these most beautiful freckled legs and she spoke Spanish. I said something in Spanish to her, kidding around, and she spoke Spanish back to me and I thought, oh my gosh, she speaks Spanish better than I do, and she has these beautiful legs better than I do.

Orlando Mora:

And she has these beautiful legs, and so we started dating and we married.

Scott Brandley:

I don't know about eight months later, and so that's how we met at a singles dance.

Alisha Coakley:

That's funny so your life dramatically changed in just a matter of a couple of years.

Orlando Mora:

My wife is nuts to have even went on a date with me. I don't know what she's thinking. She's sitting right there laughing, so but go ahead.

Orlando Mora:

I was going to ask what did your family think with you joining the church? I think I was so excited when I was taking the lessons and I was going to be baptized and I would call my mom on a regular basis and give her a report and tell her about the Christ that lives in Arizona and how amazing he is, and tell her about the church, and I would just tell her everything and she, I think she was happy that I was sober and doing well. I don't think she was so happy that I joined the church, because it's kind of like a betrayal type of thing. You raised Roman Catholics, we're all Roman Catholics, now you're joining this weird church and she kind of felt a little betrayed. Maybe you raised Roman Catholics, we're all Roman Catholics, now you're joining this weird church and she kind of felt a little betrayed. Maybe I don't know, but she had a hard time with it. It took some years for her to kind of you know be more accepting.

Orlando Mora:

But she I want to share with you when our kids were in high school. This is one of the amazing experiences that I've experienced as a member of the church. I think God gifted me with the gift of dreams and so I would have these amazing dreams. I couldn't always figure them out, but a lot of them I have. And our boys were still in high school and we had a tradition that on spring break we would take the boys somewhere to do fun stuff for a few days a week and we were on our way on spring break and the first night, I had this dream and I'm going to read it because I can't remember it, I'm sorry.

Orlando Mora:

And I'm going to read it because I can't remember it, I'm sorry. So on the way to Phoenix, we were listening to this pastor on the radio. Because we can't get a lot of radio stations up here.

Orlando Mora:

We're out in the boondocks and so all we could get was this pastor and so, and the kids had their ear, their earbuds and listening to their own music. So carol and I were listening to this pastor who was talking about, uh, our house and our in our house should be a temple and and, um, just talking about our bodies and how we should take care of our bodies. And that night I had a dream that I was in this house, I was being led by my hand and I've been in this house many times before, but I didn't remember when or why. I didn't recognize any of the rooms. I didn't recognize any other rooms, so we started out in the top floor and I knew Christ was in the house and I was looking forward to meeting him. And so we started in the top floor and I was sure he was going to be in the top floor. And we went in the top floor and we went from room to room to room to room, but he wasn't there. And we headed down a hallway lots of closets, and we opened up all the doors and we were looking and I was being led by my hand. Room by room, we opened the doors and he wasn't there.

Orlando Mora:

We finally got to the bottom floor and I went room by room and he just wasn't there and I was starting to get discouraged. So, almost on our way out, we came to a door that caught my attention. When I asked what it was, the voice said the basement. And the door opened as though it was inviting me to come into the basement. I didn't like the basement. I had bad memories of basements, bad memories of basements, and the reason why that is is because as a four-year-old child, I was led into a basement, me and three other little boys four or five years old, and we were led into a dark basement by a neighbor and he did bad things to us, and so I was prompted to continue thinking it would be dark, damp and scary and full of bad memories.

Orlando Mora:

And I never imagined that this savior being in the basement as I was led, still by my hand, in a dark corner, there he was sitting, waiting and looking at me in open arms, and I just couldn't believe that he was in the basement. So I think that the dream, the meaning of the dream, is that he was there in the basement with me when I was four years old, and it also means that I never expected him to be in the basement. But regardless of where I am in life, he is with me Dark, cold and scary. Regardless, he has always been there. I was ashamed to know that I had dragged him to such ugly places throughout my life, to know that I had dragged him to such ugly places throughout my life. Now, knowing that he has, he was there at my most painful and shameful moments of my life and that he experienced it all with me and for me.

Orlando Mora:

After this was over, I realized how much he loves me, forgives me and wants me to be on the top floor of the mansion with him. The basement was only a temporary place of learning and I had to learn to forgive that man that did those things. So it's just been one of the coolest experiences I had. That I learned through a dream and I just wanted to share that had that I learned through a dream.

Scott Brandley:

And I just wanted to share that with you. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I mean, you look back on your life to where you are now and you know, for all those years when you were lost. I mean, you know, what do you think, looking back on your life to where you are now?

Orlando Mora:

how do you see God in your journey? I see him as though he's always been there, just watching over me the whole time. I was never alone and you know, I think it's. You know, I think it's because of my grandma, who taught me how to pray as a little child. I never forgot how to pray and and I would always pray and, and, sadly, I pray. Most of the times that I prayed is when I was scared or when I was hurting real bad and I got myself into a foxhole, and then I would do a foxhole prayer, and so I was, you know, but I never gave up, and so I always prayed, even at some of my worst moments, that I could live a normal life and be free from the stuff that I was addicted to.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, wow, you got me.

Alisha Coakley:

Your story is so amazing, I love it so much and it like never in a million years, just talking to and looking at you, what I think, that you had gone through all of that.

Alisha Coakley:

You know, like you just seem to just emanate Christ light, like through your, your smile, and it's just, you can just feel your spirit and your sincerity, and it's such a beautiful thing and I really appreciate you sharing that dream, especially because I think that, um, gosh, I think we can all resonate. You know, like just the, the feeling of being in a basement. You know, whether we were physically there or not, um, emotionally, spiritually, there are so many times when that is the lowest of lows. You know, and and I it makes me think about in Dr Uncommonance, where it talks about how, like, like, no one has descended lower than Christ, like he, always he is the rock, and so when we hit rock bottom, we know we're with him. You know, and I just think that's such a beautiful, beautiful dream that you were given, and especially an understanding to that dream. You know, like gosh, I don't even. I don't even have any other words other than that, just thank you so much for sharing a story today with us.

Orlando Mora:

You're welcome, it's my pleasure.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, much for sharing this story today with us. You're welcome. It's my pleasure. Yeah, there's some good insight there, because I mean in life, when we're faced with things we don't want to confront, that's kind of like our basement, right, whether it's something we've done or something somebody's done to us. I mean there's just some things we don't want to face in life, whether it's something we've done or something somebody's done to us. I mean it's, there's just some things we don't want to face in life. They're too hard, they're too hard to face and those are kind of like our our basements. You know the challenges, the difficult thing that we have to eventually go through.

Orlando Mora:

Everybody has stuff, you know, I think one of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that everybody has stuff.

Orlando Mora:

Everybody has a basement that they've been in and we all suffer with stuff. That's the purpose of coming and experiencing the earth life and I think we forget that. We forget to be kind and compassionate to people when we think that they're just mean or they just don't for whatever reason, and we judge people. Well, I shouldn't say we, I judge people and I forget that we all have stuff and you don't know what they're going through and sometimes just a smile, a kind smile or a compliment can make somebody's day and make and just bring happiness to their, to their day, and so I try and live my life that way.

Orlando Mora:

I try and be kind to strangers at all times. I tried to teach my kids that.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, it shows you just have like the sweetest spirit. I love it. I love this, this whole story, this whole episode. I love that we got to meet you Like I, you know. What's funny is I don't even know who wrote to us, because they didn't sign their name and they sent your email so for our listeners, we had a friend of yours email us and say you've got to talk to Orlando, he's got an amazing story, and then they put your email address as a backers. I couldn't even reply back to them.

Orlando Mora:

That little sneaky, I don't even reply back to them that little sneaky Ken Isaacson I don't know who it was.

Alisha Coakley:

Do you know who it is?

Orlando Mora:

I don't. Would you like to know who it is? Yeah, who was it? His name is Ken Isaacson.

Alisha Coakley:

Okay, yeah.

Orlando Mora:

He lives here in our town. He's just the nicest guy.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, that's cool. Well, I thank you, ken, so much like and for taking the time to email us and to, to you know, offer up orlando as our guests, because it was just so, so awesome. I love this so much.

Orlando Mora:

Thank you, it was a pleasure.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh man, well, Orlando, can I ask real quick, like before we hop off here, what would you say to listeners who maybe are in their own basements right now, you know like, who maybe don't feel like they have a lot of hope, or they don't feel the Savior by their side, or they don't think that they're worthy of a miracle? What would you say to those listeners?

Orlando Mora:

I'd say that you can't give up on God. If you, whatever it is that you're struggling with, if you're sincere about wanting to change your life and about wanting to be happy and about wanting to have all the best things that life has to offer, God can help us do all those things, and you, just you can't. You know, I think a lot of us sometimes we're kind of a once a day friend to God on Sunday.

Orlando Mora:

He wants us to be his friend all the time. He wants us to be sincere and he knows our hearts. And so if you spill your heart and let him know, and talk to him and let him know what your needs are, what you're suffering with he already knows it, but he wants to hear it from you. You just tell him and he'll come through for you, like he did for me, and he loves all his children. Why wouldn't he do that for you? He wants to. So that's what I would say.

Scott Brandley:

Love it. Your story is amazing, Orlando, and we really appreciate you coming on to share it with us and with our audience.

Orlando Mora:

It was my pleasure.

Alisha Coakley:

So well, are there any final thoughts that you want to share? I feel like you wrapped it up pretty beautifully, but I do want to give you one last opportunity to share. I don't think so.

Orlando Mora:

I just know that there's nothing God can't do. If he could do, if he could change my life the way he did, he can do that for anyone, and it doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing or what sins you think you might have your sins are no greater than my sins and my sins are no greater than your sins and he can do anything for anyone at any time, and he's there for us.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh man, Orlando, you're awesome. You're welcome back anytime.

Orlando Mora:

I would love to tell you the rest of the story I hey, yes, orlando part two, I love it okay, thank you for having me oh yeah thank you, orlando it's been my pleasure and I'm honored to be here and to share my story with with others and hope that it gives hope to somebody.

Alisha Coakley:

I. I think it definitely will. I know it did for me for sure. I got I. I was able to feel a spirit for sure.

Scott Brandley:

So I appreciate you yeah, okay, well, and if, if any of our listeners are out there listening to this and they feel inspired to share their story, maybe you inspired someone to to come on and share their story, orlando. So if that's the case, go to latterdaylightscom and tell us about your story so we can have you on, like we did with Orlando.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, absolutely. Or be a Ken and just tell on someone else who has a cool story. We'll take that too. Oh man, yeah. And to our listeners, guys, as always, please make sure you do that. Five second missionary work. Share Orlando's story. Put a comment below. Let us know what your favorite part was. And, you know, just help us to be able to get this episode out to more people. We would really really appreciate that. So with that, I think that's a wrap for this week. We hope everyone tunes in next week for another episode of Latter-day Lights. Until then, we hope you guys have a great time.

Scott Brandley:

Take care everybody, Bye-bye.

Orlando Mora:

Good night, thank you.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host