DK

 DK has been an amazing member.  He joined the church about a year ago and has been on fire to learn more and do more in the church.

As his one-year date approached, the Branch President asked Liz and I to teach him the Temple Preparation lessons.  He loved it, and can't wait to go and get his endowments.  But as the time came to interview him for his temple recommend, the Slovenian government imposed a new restriction on meetings, including church meetings.  We are required to post someone at the door and ensure that each person entering the building has one of three things:  a certification of vaccination for COVID, a doctor's certificate of having recovered from COVID, or a PCR test result showing no infection, within the last 48 hours.  And we still have to wear masks.

The members here do not trust their government, and the COVID vaccines come from the government.  They don't trust anything the government wants them to do, so many of them refuse to do any of the things the government is doing to limit COVID-19.  The restriction came suddenly and there was active protest.  Many of the members have chosen to stay home and watch Sacrament meetings over Zoom, rather than comply, including DK.  Well, we have counted Zoom attendance as church attendance since the COVID restrictions first started.

However, in DK's case the local leaders decided that if DK won't get vaccinated or get tested, and therefor can't attend church and partake of the Sacrament, he isn't worthy to hold a temple recommend.  And that is when I got sideways on this issue.  Temple recommends are highly structured.  There is a series of questions that must be asked of a member before you can issue a recommend.  The instructions are very clear that you must not skip any questions, and must not add any of your own.  Further, it says you should not express opinions about the questions or omission of anything you think should be included.  My take on it is that the leaders should not deny a recommend to DK, because it is not included in any of the recommend questions.  I argued for DK, and finally escalated it to the mission president.

He took the position that while they can't add a new requirement in the interview, they don't have to interview anybody they don't feel is worthy to attend the temple.  So, DK was out.  For now.  I tried to convince him that the vaccination is a good thing and he would get his recommend if he would comply.  No dice.  He says nobody is going to force him to get it.

When General Conference came around (first weekend of October), the people speaking Macedonian complained that the translator was doing a very poor job, and the word went out to find a replacement ASAP.  DK was born in Slovenia, but his parents are Macedonian and speak that language.  DK speaks Macedonian, English, and Slovenian fluently, so the District President asked him to help.  DK was happy to help and did a great job on the second day of the conference.  So good, that the church officially offered to hire him to translate church materials.  That was great news because he has been having trouble finding a job.  The hickup is that the church requires the translator to hold a current temple recommend.

But then the Slovene government decided that self tests would be sufficient to attend meetings.  They are inexpensive and easy.  DK got one and attended the Branch Conference, based on passing the self test.  Hurray!  So, now he has met all the requirements, real and imagined, and has passed his first temple recommend interview.  He still has to get the second interview and then he will be able to get the job.

And, he also wants to go to the temple.  We have already told him we will be happy to take him to the temple, which we should be able to do because we were involved in teaching him, and he wants me to be his guide.

Everything is now perfect, right?  Yes, except that during all this drama, COVID has increased here and in order to go to the temple in Frankfurt or Rome, unvaccinated residents of Slovenia now have to be quarantined for two weeks upon entering the country.  None of us are willing to endure that to go there.  And that is where it stands today.  We don't know when we will be able to get him to the temple, but at least he will have his recommend so he will be ready.  And he will have his new job.

It really feels to us like we have been battling for DK for months now and that the opposition has been strong and unrelenting.  We are making progress, but it has been so slow and difficult.  We are discouraged, because it isn't clear that we will be able to take him before we go home.  But we keep battling.