What If You Need to Talk to the Bishop and He's Your Friend's Dad?

Dear Bro Jo,

So I come from an indefinitely LDS family.

I am 15.

I just don’t know where things went wrong.

I started to have doubts in the Church and stuff.

I viewed pornography for a while (haven't for a while but I haven't brought it to the attention of my parents or bishop) and I feel like a patriarchal blessing would really help. I'm planning on getting the pornography mess cleared up... If I can get over my nervousness. (The bishop is a close friends father) which brings me to my 2 questions.

First, is there any advice you can give me to help my nervousness or help me know what to do?

And 2nd, do I have to wait till after I get the porn mess cleaned up to get my patriarchal blessing?

I just don't know where I started to go wrong... I am also about to move and have been discouraged knowing that I am leaving everyone I know. I'm moving from (location omitted) to (location omitted) so any advice you can give me on moving would help, too.

Thanks... Hopefully I'm not embarrassing myself and using this email the wrong way. I just saw it randomly on BlogSpot and saw your email and figured I'd just email you without researching it thoroughly.

Thanks for your time and help,

- Name Withheld



Dear Brother,

Father's friend or not, a Bishop is a Bishop and it will be a lot easier for you to battle what you're battling with his help. Fear comes from Satan. Put it aside and go talk to your Bishop today. The fact that he knows you will actually be more of a help.

And trust me, he's not going to tell your friend.


When you talk to him, bring up the Patriarchal Blessing. If now is the time, great! If you need to put some things right before then, that's okay, too.

The point is to get you back on track.

I promise you there's a link from Satan to pornography to your doubts. Porn is a very powerful tool of the adversary; addictive as any drug and just as dangerous, perhaps more so because of it's wide acceptance and encouragement by the morally corrupt, morally ignorant, and morally confused. It's ready accessibility is a huge problem, too.

Go call and make the appointment with your Bishop right now.

I promise that as you begin to put this behind you, you'll feel a ton better.


- Bro Jo

PS - Moving in High School is hard, I know. But it will be easier if you've started down the path to conquering what troubles you. Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance!