Family and friends mourn slain missionary

ALAMO, Nev. - Since the age of 8, Jose Mackintosh had talked to friends and family of his fascination for the Russian people, and his desire to spend his two years as a Mormon missionary in that country.

Monday friends and family gathered to remember the gregarious young man with the infectious smile, who was killed Oct. 17 while living out his dream.

Across the street from the L.D.S Church were the 20-year-old Mackintosh was eulogized, and at the handful of businesses along nearby U.S. 93, hand-lettered signs hung on locked doors: "Closed 10 a.m.-1 p.m. for Jose's funeral."

Mackintosh was stabbed as he left an apartment building in Ufa, Russia on Oct. 17. A missionary companion, Bradley Borden, 20, of Mesa, Ariz., was stabbed but survived in the attack. A suspect has been arrested.

Becki Mackintosh told a crowd of some 700 mourners that her son had dreamed of being a missionary in Russia since he was 8-years-old.

She recounted experiences their son had relayed to the family in the tiny town of Hiko, north of this ranching community. In letters to the family he talked of walking along snowy Russian streets, of being warned to stay inside during a Communist Party protest 10 days before his death, of using the indoor time to make 21 batches of brownies.

And he told of talking with an elderly Russian man who had been in a concentration camp.

"It was a peephole into a different kind of life," the young missionary wrote. "It made me glad for what I had."

He said he planned to step up his missionary work because he had "many people to teach."

Jose Mackintosh Sr., sobbed as he told that his son had died doing what he loved, urging that there be "no animosity and no ill feelings whatsoever for the people of Ufa - or Russia. They are our brothers and sisters."

Elder Jeffery R. Holland, one of 12 apostles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the Russians were weeping for the loss of Jose.

"Today Jose is everybody's son," he told the parents. "Thank you for letting us all today share something of Jose."

Holland said that Mackintosh's smile was something that everybody remembered.

"This was some remarkable young man," he said. "When life got toughest, that's when he smiled the most. He was majestic."

Mackintosh graduated from tiny Pahranagat Valley High School, where he was an honor student, wrestled and was a member of the football team. He attended Brigham Young University, where he prepared for his two years of missionary work for the Mormon church, leaving for Russia in November 1997.

"He was a sense of joy. Like a sunset," Holland said.

"God knows everything about losing a son on a mission," Holland told the crowd as both men and women dabbed at their eyes. "I'm sorry it is so hard. I'm sorry it is such a loss."

Among those attending Monday's services were Myrna and Dale Borden, the parents of Bradley Borden. Mrs. Borden said she wanted to be at the services to show support from her family, and her son would have been there if he had been well enough to do so.

Bradley Borden is currently recuperating in Frankfurt, Germany.

Wesley Wilson, a friend of the family, watched as Mackintosh's parents, his sister and two brothers exited the church behind the casket, the sun glinting between gathering storm clouds, a cold wind whipping flowers as they were carried to a waiting van. Among the arrangements was a large bow tie of red and white carnations. The boy who was about to become a man had once been chided by church officials for wearing a bow tie rather than a regulation tie.

"Jose was "always smiling, a very loving, caring young man," Wilson said sadly. "He loved the Russian people. Since he was eight, he wanted to go on a mission there. I think he was doing what he wanted to do, he was where he wanted to be, around the people he loved."

archive