One week ago today, I met with my stake president.  He had received personal revelation that it was urgent to give me a message.  Referring to Protect the Children, he said, “Walk away, Sam, walk away.”

He asked me to seriously consider it.  I said I would.  We didn’t discuss it much further.

After our meeting I carefully deliberated.  Within a few days, my decision was firm.  “Walk with the children, Sam, walk with the children.”  I chose not to walk away.  Rather, I would move full steam ahead with preparations for the action on July 28 & 29.

I have purposefully been vague on what the action would entail.  Here are some of  the reasons for withholding details:

1. Many people surely would have called me out to NOT pursue this course.  I didn’t want to spend my energy in defending.
2. Many people would have scoffed and called the action meaningless.  Again, I didn’t want to waste the energy in convincing.
3. I didn’t want to give the church advance warning this time.  In all of our storied history, this would be the first time they have ever faced this type of action

 Meeting in the Wind?

I arrived in Salt Lake City yesterday, Wednesday.  Within one day, unforeseen developments have arisen.  A staunch supporter of PLDSC invited me to an early breakfast.  He has deep connections in the church.

Following, is a very shortened version on the conversation.

Supporter:  Would you be interested in meeting with an apostle before the action if I could line it up?

Sam:  Of course.

Supporter:  I’d have to know what you are planning.

Sam:  (I described all the elements of the action.)

Supporter:  That has the potential to cause a real PR nightmare for the Church.

Sam:  That’s what I’m counting on.

Supporter:  If you secured a meeting with the apostle, would you be willing to call off your action?

Sam:  I’d at least be willing to postpone it.

Supporter:  Okay….I’ll reach out to my contact right after breakfast, describe what’s going on and see if he would be willing to contact the apostle.

This afternoon, Supporter had a “long” meeting with his Contact.  They discussed the many risks the church faces by continuing these interviews, the potential PR storm and several other implications.

Contact already knew about my work.  He even AGREES with the changes we are calling for.  How amazingly cool is that!

Memos about policy changes have crossed his desk.  Often he thinks to himself, “This has Sam written all over it.”  I thought, “Nope it has 10’s of 1,000’s of good people’s names written all over it.  And 1,000’s upon 1,000’s of survivors names written all over it.

Within only 24 hours of arriving in Utah, my apple cart may have toppled completely over.  But in a good way.  We have a possibility of making our case directly to an apostle, someone who actually has the power to make changes.

**Update:  Contact just requested my cell phone number.

Choices

I’m not terribly hopeful that an apostolic meeting will actually happen.  If it does, I will then have to decide whether or not to postpone.

If nothing is set by tomorrow, it’s full steam ahead.

Details

So now, the Church knows the details.

A major Salt Lake TV station called me today.  I shared the details and swore them to silence.  As a neophyte, I’m hoping the media keeps confidences.

The circle of people in the ‘need to know’ category has now expanded to 15.  Some of them gave me serious push back as described above.

Even so, I’m not ready to release all the details in public….except for the ones below.

The action’s start date has been moved up to Friday July 27th at 7:00pm MT.  It will continue behind the scenes all day Saturday.

Sunday, July 29th

9:00am: I will announce the entire action from the shadow of the Salt Lake Temple.  It will be broadcast by livestream on Facebook and hopefully Youtube.  I haven’t figured that one out yet.

11:00am:  I’m going to sacrament meeting to renew my covenants.

5:00pm:  I return to South Temple and hope to meet many of my friends.

6:45 – 8:00pm:  Still at South Temple, a daily ritual will be established and a special meeting conducted.

Obviously, I have left out the PR nightmare details.  Those will be announced Sunday morning.  At the same time, I’ll be sharing many ways that people in every nook and cranny around the world can actively participate.

The march was historic.  It was magical.  It accomplished so much in so many ways.  It landed the Sacred Stories of  our Sacred Children on the desks of the apostles.  Elder Christofferson took the time to read them all.  Kudos to Elder C.

The coming action, nameless until Sunday, will be every bit as historic.  This will be the first and maybe the only time this occurrence faces the Church.  I have heard many people lament that they missed the march.  Don’t lament missing this action.  I’m depending on YOU to give it a powerful walloping punch felt around the world.

With all that said….a meeting with an apostle may put our maneuver on hold.