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SALT LAKE CITY ‐ A 20-year-old LDS missionary from Pasco, Wash., died Friday night in Mexico during a ward soccer activity.
"It is with sadness that we report the death of one of our full-time missionaries, Elder Nathan Castle McBride, age 20, who has been serving since January 2014 in the Mexico Merida Mission," church spokesman Eric Hawkins said.
"Elder McBride passed away Friday evening after collapsing while at a ward activity," Hawkins added. "The cause of death is still not certain. As a church, we mourn at the loss of every missionary, and we pray for his family and for those who knew him.”
The missionary's father told the Bellingham, Wash., Herald that his son was playing in a soccer match with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' local congregation and community members who the missionaries were teaching about the church when he ran after a ball during a break in play and collapsed.
As a church, we mourn at the loss of every missionary, and we pray for his family and for those who knew him.
–Eric Hawkins, LDS Church spokesman
Robert McBride said he had been told it appeared his son suffered a heart attack.
McBride did not have any health problems and had been an active young man who loved hiking, fishing, pole vaulting and other sports, his father said.
The McBride family, who are members of the church's Pasco Washington North Stake, spoke with Elder McBride by phone at Christmas.
“Nathan was serving the Lord as a missionary and he was doing what he was supposed to be doing,” his father said. “And he was happy, he was very happy. He loved what he was doing.”
