Episode 712: Marcus Bowers, Single Latter-day Saint, mid 40s, Bishopric Member

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2023

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend Marcus Bowers (BYU grad, two master’s degrees, never married/straight, early release missionary, once suicidal, Iraq veteran) joins us to bravely share his story. Marcus starts with coming home from his mission after two weeks (because of his emotional health) and feeling his path was not to return to full time missionary service and how we can better support early release missionaries. Marcus then talks about getting on with his life (education, military, and his profession) and his journey with mental health issues which culminated in suicidal ideation leading to a stay in a psychiatric ward. Marcus talks about the importance of normalizing mental health struggles, so people feel safe opening up and getting help. Marcus shares what he’d say to his younger self and others feeling suicidal. Marcus then talks about why he stays in the church and resources he used to navigate his own faith crises. Marcus talks about his service in his mid-singles ward and how we can “break the mold” to help all of God’s children feel welcome, needed, valued, and included. Marcus talks how he feels whole, not broken, while still being a work in progress — and not waiting to be married. Thank you, Marcus, for being on the podcast. You are so brave. You are a remarkable man doing much good in our church community and society. Your story helps others. Thank you for your courage to be on the podcast. Links: Marcus on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wanderer.eternal Marcus on Instagram: @marcussmusings Marcus’ email: [email protected] Richard Ostler books/bio/etc: www.papaostler.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love hosted by Richard Osler.
0:11.4	Most of my guests receive a spiritual impression to reach out and wonder if their story could be helpful for others.
0:18.9	And maybe you're somebody wondering if you could do that and
0:22.4	anybody's welcome to reach out and be on the podcast if you feel your story would help others
0:27.9	you can just DM me on social media um but i got a DM on i think messenger a few months ago
0:35.9	from my new friend marcus bowers and he shared a little bit of his story and that led to him being on the podcast today.
0:43.8	So welcome to the podcast, Marcus.
0:46.7	Hi, Richard. Thank you for having me.
0:49.1	And I'll give a little bit of an overview and then I'll turn over to Marcus to share his story.
0:54.8	Marcus lives in Virginia, I think Northern Virginia in the D.C. suburbs. I've got that correct.
1:02.9	He is in his mid-40s. He's 45. He's in a mid-singles ward. He's in the bishopric of a
1:08.9	mid-singles ward. He is single. He's straight.
1:13.2	He graduated from BYU and tuba performance and then went to grad school. He's a master's in
1:20.5	music theory and a second master's in organizational psychology and is currently a project manager.
1:28.7	But Barka's life, like a lot of people's lives, has had some curves and some surprises.
1:35.0	And he will talk about serving a mission, but coming home a couple weeks later,
1:41.9	he'll talk about his journey with depression, suicidal ideation,
1:46.3	including being in a psych ward.
1:48.8	That's something that has a lot of stigma around it.
1:51.5	Really admire Marcus willing to talk about that part of his life.
1:55.2	He's served in Iraq.
1:57.2	He's in the reserve.
	...

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