Episode 538: Michael Finch, Age 27, Suicide Survivor, RM, BYU Student, Gay

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2022

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

**Trigger Warning: Podcast talks about Suicide. If you are suicidal please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255** My friend Michael Finch bravely shares his story. Michael talks about realizing at BYU that he is gay before his mission, resulting in feelings of “my life is over”. At that time, Michael ignored this realization, and he served a successful mission in New York City speaking Mandarin Chinese. Michael talks about returning home and trying to move forward with his life including coming out as gay (positive experience). However, suicidal ideation (which has been part of Michael’s story since before his mission) continued until Michael’s suicide attempt in March 2021. Michael bravely shares more about that experience, what he has learned and why he decided to openly share about his suicide attempt to help others. A year after his suicide attempt, Michael made this Instagram post in March 2022 (www.instagram.com/p/CbgRYONvJMEG2Y9pKxDA2u7r272D-WqoTy-EZk0/). If you are feeling suicidal or what to help others, please listen to Michael’s podcast. He helps us understand why someone considers suicide and how best to help them. I learned so much listening to Michael. If you are suicidal, please call 800-273-8255 Thank you, Michael, for being on the podcast and your courage to share your story. Respect. You are a great man with a wonderful future. Richard 'Papa' Ostler ❤️ https://www.listenlearnandlove.org/gay-lesbian-same-sex-podcasts https://listenlearnandlove.org/suicide-podcasts ** Please Check Out My LGBTQ Book At: ** Deseret Book: www.deseretbook.com/p/listen-learn-and-love-embracing-lgbtq-latter-day-saints Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/1462135773 ** Want to develop church-supported LGBTQ activities in your local area? Please join our FB group below ** https://www.facebook.com/groups/1433556613672143

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.2	My guest on today's podcast in my home is my friend Michael Finch.
0:13.9	Welcome to the podcast, Michael.
0:15.5	Hi. Thank you, Richard.
0:17.3	As you know, listeners, I try to give an overview of my guest and the scope of the podcast.
0:21.6	You can kind of get a feel before you listen.
0:24.6	But this is going to be a podcast with Michael talking about his own suicide attempt and being a survivor of suicide.
0:32.6	And feeling them to talk about this on social media, to help others. And so if you are suicidal,
0:40.7	you're trying to help someone that's suicidal, you want to better understand this space. I think
0:45.2	Michael can give us ideas and perspectives. And I applaud him in advance for his courage to talk
0:51.0	about this in his life. He's also going to tell his story that's part of the same
0:57.2	story as a gay Latterty Saint. And just to give you more of a bio, currently Michael, who is 27 years
1:03.0	old, returned missionary from New York City. He's a student at Brigham Young University. He's a
1:08.1	political science major. He's a Chinese minor. I think he either
1:12.4	learned Chinese on his mission or did you learn it before your mission? I did not know any Chinese
1:16.8	before my mission. I went into the MTC and it was actually the only member of my district who
1:21.7	had no prior experience. And did you get Chinese on your call or did it come later?
1:26.8	It was right there.
1:28.0	I'm going to the New York, New York, South mission, and I've been called to serve in the Mandarin Chinese language.
1:33.6	And it was quite a shock for me.
1:36.0	Wow.
1:37.2	But you've taken this and have learned Chinese and are a Chinese minor.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Richard Ostler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Richard Ostler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.