My Experience Being A Branch Missionary

So back in 2015 I started going to the lessons with the Sister Missionaries who were serving in the branch, which was always a great time. I don't drive so I didn't go out that much, and because of the mission rules, them being females and I'm a male and no other female member was in the same car, they couldn't pick me up

When I did go to the lessons, they were great, I would write poems to go along with the topic of the lesson we were having.

This one day we had a lesson schedule and were having it at the temple grounds, the topic was on temples, they asked if I had a poem about temples... I didn't reply back for a couple hours then  saying I had just finished one. haha.

After the lesson

In 2015 I also started teaching in Gospel Principles, that was when I started poetry again, would write poems to go along with the lesson, and than I wrote them for the mission lessons. 2015 was the year when it was pretty well known in the branch that I wrote poetry and Brother Westover gave me the "title" as "Branch Poet" hahaah.

Then the beginning of 2016 we had Elders Missionaries replacing the sisters, which was a nice change up, like the last time we had Elders in the branch was summer 2014.

They were Elder Dunnell and Elder Hansen, had such a great time with them and getting to know them. it was hard at first, because normally, when transfers came, one of the sister missionaries would leave and a new one would replace her. so it was easier to get to know the new missionary because I already knew one of them.

After going to multiple lessons with the Elders, they asked what my last name was and they jokingly said "Oh so we can call you Elder Sisemore now" haha.. the funny thing was, the next day at out reach Hansen called me "Elder" then said sorry and called me Michael. haha..

Anyways so I started going out with them, and still go out with them. in fact, if I don't go out  at least once a week, it feels "off" there has been multiple weeks where I gone out not once but around 2-3. I think the most I ever went out in one week was 5 times.


Hansen then was transfer near the end of May and we got Elder Hutchens, he's a great guy, me and him just clicked right away. he gets home at the end of March so I'm looking forward to talking to him again.

It took Hutchens and Dunnell (Mostly Hutchens) weeks to get me to sing any songs with them in the car driving to the lessons. When I joined in, Hutchens cracked up the volume and we were just blasting the music and singing. haha...

One week during the summer my family went camping, so I signed up to feed the Elders during a weekday (My family can only feed them on the weekends) during our meal of tacos that I made, I showed them (Dunnell and Hutchens) the video from the talent show in 2015. Hutchens was pretty speechless, he looked at me and was just like "Wow.... I've.. wow.. ha I've never heard you like that"

The YSA Elders are the zone leaders, so I've seen quite a lot of other missionaries, like being at the church building and others were there to get some water or to use the bathroom, so from that I would see other Elders. (Or when they were on exchanges)  I'd see some so much that they knew my name and were just like "hey what's up Michael?"

Hutchens would refer to me as they're 3rd companion, and tell the other missionaries that we were in a tri companionship,


for example I knew one of the Elders currently serving in my family's home ward before they saw him his first day there, they came over for dinner, he walked in and was like "Ah hey Michael"



After Dunnell left, than Elder Tailleur came, he's a pretty cool guy, they all are ha.
Hutchen introduce me to Tailleur said I was amazing and I'll come out to lessons with them anytime and how I have the best record and haven't said no to going out.

There has been times when they'd text me asking if I can go to a lesson, I say yes, and then they reply back with "Come outside, we're already here" haaha. that has happened a couple of times.

As you can see here

the next transfers Hutchens left and came Elder Olson, again had some great times with them.

In December I even went with they're mission district for Christmas caroling. I was the only non missionary there, I thought it was pretty funny/cool. I meant some newer  missionaries in the area a couple were even like "Hey, I've seen you around quite a bit, what's your name again?"

Me and Elder Tailleur, the same day we went caroling and the day before he was being transferred. 

Elder Olson who is getting transfer this Wednesday, I'm taking them out to lunch today, Olson and Wit, as I did when Hutchens was getting transferred, same for Taillerur and now Olson.

Me and Elder Olson

Not only is hanging out with the Elders always fun, but going to the lessons, sharing my thoughts, and getting to know the new investigators is always great, I like sharing my thoughts, when I have something to say ha.

a couple weeks ago I was with the Elders and Olson asked me if I miss Elder Tailleur, I said I did, but it's always  nice to get to know the new Elder. Olson started laughing and said I answered that pretty good because Elder Wit (Who replaced Tailleur) was in same car and of course could hear. so we were just laughing. Wit is a pretty cool guy, as they all are ha.

Looking forward to meeting the new Elder this week. Elder Tobey.

The Comfort Zone

Happy new years everyone hah.. a bit late.

There's only 42 days until my brother is back from his mission so that's exciting, it'd go by pretty fast.

Time goes by fast, like, we're in 2017 already... what? ha,

There's some things I want to work on in 2017, one is to get more articles publish, I have a idea of one right now, I just need to sit down and write it out, also I want to blog more then I did in 2016.

I also want to write more poetry as well, it's hard to find the motivation to write poetry, because I don't really have a good way to share it with people. Especially the spoken word poems, hence the words "Spoken word" those poems are just better spoken and not read on some Facebook status or blog.

Talent shows in the YSA happens maybe twice a year, so I'd need to find some other way to share the spoken words poems. I have one idea which I won't say now, because it's something I would like to do, but I'm on the edge looking down  cause it'd take me out of my comfort zone.

ah comfort zones, how comfortable you are, sometimes you just need to take a leap out of your zone and see what happens. for instants. back in 2015 when I was in the talent show. That was getting out of my comfort zone, I remember the sign up sheet for the show was passed to me and I wrote down my name. after I passed it on, I was excited but was also a bit nervous/scared, and wanted to grab the paper and cross out my name, but I'm glad I didn't.

 I shocked  a lot of people that night ha.. it was a memorable night that I will never forget, like people who I had never met before came up and started talking to me and said how great my performance was. at times when I go to YSA activities than someone is like "Hey!, you're the poet guy" it happened at the Halloween party last year and some other activities.

People were able to see as well that "Hey, this Mike guy is pretty funny" I had a friend say "Forgot poetry, you can be a comedian!" in a jokingly way,  and thus the comedian poet was born.

Getting out of your comfort zone benefits you more vs staying.
I've said this a couple of times, but I want to try talking to more people, that's something big for me with getting out of my comfort zone.

What is something you can do to get out of your comfort zone?

If you haven't seen the video before, or just want to watch it again ;p, here it is.

 You could tell how nervous I was at the beginning. once that first joke was told, I had the stage. haha...

My brother (who's on mission) back in 2015 when I was telling him about the talent show, he said "I think you should switch your talent to freestyle rapping. Your MC name could be "Big Mikey" "Micky Mike" or "Papa M". yea, those sound pretty G.  DO IT."

So watch out people, Papa M will go on tour in 2017. hahaha jk...

One Year Ago Today

December 20th 2015 was the day when I got my first article published. you can read it here

During this year I have written 4 other articles. I should of worked on more but I just stopped writing, on my blog and everything. but maybe I'll get some more articles out in 2017 :).

I was pretty shocked at first that I was going to get this article published. I started blogging at the start of 2015, and almost a year later I was writing up a article.

I'm thankful for the trial I was given with growing up with Asperger's Syndrome. without it I probably wouldn't of found out I could write/liked writing. It started out with poetry, not the kind of poems I write today. back then they were pretty eh dark/sad type stuff. but as I grew with writing I started a blog when I was 18, did it for a couple years then slowly stopped blogging, started it back up in 2015 and blogged every Tuesday.

I just want to say that sometimes, the trials we go through, there will be blessings at the end. it may be instant, may take a couple days, weeks,months, or even years. But they do come.

I'm still surprised that people actually like my stuff I write ha. I can be pretty hard on myself with my writings, but seeing that people enjoy it, can get insights, etc It just means a lot to me that I can write and help other people out.

3rd Nephi 1: 13-14

13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.

14 Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfill all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son—of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given.

Have a Merry Christmas

Satan's Glitter

I work at a craft store, and a lot of times, glitter gets on me and stays there for what feels like an eternity. a few months ago, one day it  was all over my shirt, my arms, my face and even in my hair.

I put Edward Cullen to shame that day.

Glitter is pretty hard to remove as well, just ask any parent who's kid spilled the bottle of glitter on the carpet.

So as I was trying to wash the glitter away, a thought pop in my head.


                                             
                                              Glitter is from Satan

haha not exactly truth, but go with me on this one. it took a good amount of washing and scrubbing to remove some of the glitter, noticed how I said some, I found more later on....

so I compared glitter to sin and to the atonement.

Isaiah 1:18  reads
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Glitter is very noticeable, sin can be very noticeable for ourselves. though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

No matter how hard I washed and scrubbed, I was able to find more glitter scattered around later
We aren't able to save ourselves from our sins. Christ's Atonement is there to wash it all away, to heal wounds, for new beginnings.

With all this being said, keep in mind, if we see others who has they're own pile of glitter. We shouldn't judge them. I like this quote from Dieter F Uchtdorf

"Don't judge me because I sin differently than you." Let face it, in some way or another, we have all sinned, we all need Christ's Atonement.

As for myself, when I've done something wrong, make a mistake, sin. I feel like it's apart of me, I can see it, it's there. it's as noticeable as glitter. how can I remove it to become clean again?

2nd Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." Christ is our source for our remissions of our sins, to be forgiven.

I also like Alma 41:10 " Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness."

Wickedness was never happiness.


Hymn- I Stand All Amazed
"I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

                          Endure to the end, stay strong in the Gospel and you won't regret it

We Don't See Others Personal Battles

"Later on, I'll make another blog post about "*Easily angered with himself and his *performance*"

Because two strong memories comes to mind and I figure  I'll share them"

That was taken from my blog post in May.. so here we go.

Learning for me was very difficult. it took me a much longer time to learn things and make them stay in my head so I would remember them for the next time we went over it etc, but my mom would always say, once I learned it,  it would stick. and she was always right. 

But the making it stick was hard. during this whole time I was maybe 10 or younger, can't remember the exact age. 

Some days I'll say it's to hard and get into a tantrum I guess you could say. I'll get upset and throw the books away and say it was to hard and I'm not able to get it, my mom would always say that nothing is to hard. she was a great supporter and had a lot of patience for me. 

Learning to read was super hard. we had these flashcards with words and on the back of them, would be stick figures that gave hints to what the word was. 

I would make this joke, saying "Why can't you just open my head and throw in all of these things so I remember them"

 I'm pretty sure college students can relate for finals. 

I would say I wasn't really that good with reading until I was 14 (meaning I could read pretty much anything I want then, my first book series was Harry Potter) before I started reading Harry Potter, the "chapter" books I'd get from the library were so childish that I hated to read, but it was my reading level.

It could of been math, reading.. or something else. 

but this one time,  I just got so mad and was saying how I'm stupid and can never get it etc. so I went and made a dunce hat, (Aye I was smart enough to know what that was for, haha ;p). I remember walking back out and my mom got pretty upset with me. she had a conversation with me, I don't remember all of it. but I do remember her telling me to never do that again, and I didn't.

Moving onto something that happened during one session  of the 8 years of speech therapy I took.

I couldn't pronounce a word the right way, no matter how many tries. so I pretty much just broke down and started crying. Not one of my proudest moments. 

My mom would always assure me that I was smart, that I was bright, whenever I was having one of my break downs, she would always say something that I was good at.

I feel like this can happen to a lot of us, we focus on the negative to much to see what we're actually good at. we see what other people strive at and yet see ourselves failing. for me growing up with my disabilities, I would look at my peers and wish I was normal, I wanted to be like them, for how I saw them.

But that's it, we only see the good from other people, we don't see they're own personal battles.
So we begin to envy other people, wanting what they have. I believe that's one thing a lot of us have in common.

Well that's it for this post, short but good.

         
                    Endure to the end, stay strong in the Gospel and you won't regret it

A Small Tribute To My Brother Taylor

Hey... it's me

"The guy who haven't posted anything since May?"
".......Yep, that's me.."

haha, so yeah I haven't blog for a good while now, I just lost the motivation with writing, I even stopped making memes

but I'm back, so you just have to put up with me again :)

Since I have been inactive with writing, a couple of friends even asked me when I was going to write another post. One of them being my friend Levi "Shout out to Levi" as he calls it when I mention him in my blog haha. He probably just wanted to have another shout out.. ha jk

 So for this post, I wanted to make it into a "tribute" of sorts to my brother Taylor.

He comes back from his mission in the Dominican Republic March 1st

 October 2013 me and some friends went to Utah for 4-5 days for General Conference weekend, during that time my brother made a Facebook status of " So my older brother has been in Utah since Thursday and not having him at home reminds me that we're growing up and that I'm not always going to have him around :("

Psshh, I left for a couple of days than he just leaves for two years. haah.

We get along pretty good, there has been sometimes when we didn't, one of those times

We were in our beds talking, I mentioned how another "friend" of mine has stopped talking to me, I was trying to express to him about having Aspergers and how difficult it has been for friendships and so on. at this point in time I haven't told anyone how much it actually did hurt and the struggle from it. he said how he has had friends stop talking to him, said how it's normal etc. but than I simply just said "Well at least you had other friends to talk to" I got pretty emotional saying that and that was the end of the conversation. It was pretty much a "Drop the mic" moment, haha jk.

He left  March 11th 2015, and a couple days before he left I wrote this blog post I had him read it, he didn't really said much while reading it, but you know those sounds people make when they're reading something and get emotional?, the "gulping" sound, he made a couple of those.

My family are pretty introverted and don't share our feelings with each other a lot. so that's why he didn't really said much. a couple months into his mission I asked what he thought of the blog post, he said "I liked it. I got to see your point of view for a lot of things and some of your experiences that I didn't know before"

When Frozen was a new movie, we went on a taco bell run while blasting the frozen soundtrack and singing the songs together, we would go get some taco bell at times to watch our shows on Netflix.
How I Met Your Mother, Supernatural, The Walking Dead, and some others

Us watching some show, I didn't know he took this until it was on Facebook ha

One night we were watching Supernatural from the tv, not computer this time, it got to a pretty creepy part and the fireplace blasted on. the fireplace downstairs turns on really loud, so that scared both of us, ha good times.

I would teach a class at church during Sunday School, one of the lessons that I just happened to be given was on the law of chastity (No sex until marriage etc) one time we were watching How I Met Your Mother and there was a scene (It was just implied, didn't show anything of course ha) then I just said "They should of been in my law of chastity lesson" he just did a face palm, I used that line a couple more times haha...

When the hashtags became really popular, me and Taylor weren't really fans of it, but to annoy him I would use hashtag in front of every word I said to him. he would do it in return, had some good times with that

Last year I was in a talent show and I did some of my poetry, one about the Atonement and the other was a spoken word  plus cracked some jokes. Video>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmRYzGuVwlk

I sent my brother the video and he was lucky enough to actually watch it, but he said 

"That's why I brought these" B-) hahahahaha! That was pretty slick... That was good stuff! hehehe I've learned a whole bunch about the atonement and the gospel in general. And omfreak. That spoken word poem you did was amazing... Like I'm being completely serious. That was really, really good. And you performed it so well. Wow. That was really great. 

Hey, thanks for that video. That really touched me today. You're awesome, you know that? We defs need to go on a bunch of adventures when I get back home. But only on one condition... You have to get me cups of water whenever I want ;P hehehe jk :P 

I probably didn't say this enough back at home, but you're awesome :) I probably am closest with you out of the rest of our brothers/sisters. And we've had some pretty rockin' times :) We have to go on some Bro adventures when I get back :D Love ya, man!"

We would go to this one restaurant  multiple of times, we went there a couple days before he was going to leave and he referred it to "The Last Supper" was pretty funny. 

6 years ago me and Taylor were told to go outside and stop watching tv when our mom went somewhere. she probably didn't expect us to make Carl the snowman, who was 8ft tall.

So yeah, I'm pretty excited to see him in a couple more months, one adventure we're wanting to do is go to General Conference in April. ROAD TRIP haha.

To sums things up, I'm pretty much like Josh in our broship