A Croatia & Slovenia Mormon Excommunication Story w/ Sara and Mitja Lakner Bevc | Ep. 2042

When a returned missionary revisits the country where she served, falls in love with a local convert, and later faces excommunication for asking questions about church history, the narrative exposes fault lines in Mormonism’s global expansion. Sara and Mitja Lakner Bevc’s story, detailed in Mormon Stories Podcast Episode 2042, illustrates how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints often collides with the cultural specificities it encounters abroad, particularly when converts import European directness into Utah’s hierarchies. Their journey from the Croatia Slovenia Mission to a disciplinary council in Utah reveals what happens when historical inquiry meets institutional rigidity.

Background: From the Adriatic to the Wasatch Front

Sara grew up in the intense Mormon environment of Alpine, Utah, attending Lone Peak High School before serving in the Slovenia Croatia Mission in 2008. She arrived in Eastern Europe knowing little about the region, quickly learning to leverage local basketball legend Kresimir Cosic as a proselytizing entry point. The mission baptized few converts, but Sara left with an unshakable testimony and a love for the Adriatic coast.

Mitja Lakner Bevc grew up in socialist Yugoslavia, the son of a single mother who later married a man whose surname he adopted. He spent summers in Switzerland, spoke