My story is probably typical of many Mormons who came of age in the 80s. In the early to mid 80s, I was asked about law of chastity questions on an annual basis. I was introduced to the concept of masturbation largely by my Bishop (though we covered it briefly in 5th grade sex-ed). I was given the Packer “little factory” handout to understand puberty and wet dreams. Whenever I had a wet dream, there was a lot of shame and embarrassment involved and I would wash my underwear to try to hide this from my parents. Between 6th and 8th grade, most of what I knew about sex came from my annual interviews and the pamphlets. My bishop was not a pervert, he was simply doing his job as he understood it. Mine is not the terror story that you will hear elsewhere, but in spite of that I do believe that these communications would be better handled by parents and public institutions (such as doctors and teachers).
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