Katie FrancisFollow

Date Collected

Fall 11-19-2017

Place item was collected

Logan, Utah

Informant

Timothy L. Cabal

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Timothy Leonido Cabal (Tim), born 26 April 1991, is a friend of mine who was born and raised in Oceanside, California. His father is half Filipino, half Irish, and his mother is full Filipino. Tim was raised in the LDS church, served an LDS mission in Colorado, and is now a Theatre Arts Student at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, California. He continues to participate actively in his faith. In his spare time, Timothy is an avid portrait sketch artist, crocheter, and caretaker of his dog and pet Savannah Monitor Lizard named Thrawn.

Context

This item was collected via a Facetime interview. I was in my home in Logan, Utah and Tim was at his home in Oceanside, California on Sunday, November 19, 2017. I had been in correspondence with Tim since we met while I was visiting friends in San Diego in March of 2017. He had told me this story several months earlier during a phone call as we were exchanging stories from our LDS missions. So the following text is transcribed verbatim from that Facetime call when I asked him to retell his story. Tim’s actual experience would have happened approximately in the winter of 2015 in San Diego. The individuals present at the time of the event were his mother, the gentleman whose carm broke down, and of course Sal, the man believed to be one of the immortal Three Nephites. As for the legend of the Three Nephites, this legend can be found in the scriptural account of the Book of Mormon, a collection of sacred writings similar to the Bible. The Mormon faith believes that the prophets who wrote in this book recorded God’s dealings with the inhabitants of the Ancient Americas. They believe that the resurrected Christ appeared to this ancient civilization in America who called themselves the Nephites. He established his church there and as part of this establishment, he called twelve apostles as he had done in Jerusalem. Three of these apostles asked Christ to make them immortal so they could continue to carry out the Lord’s work upon the earth until his second coming. Tim also mentions his patriarchal blessing towards the end of the interview, which is another important tenet of Mormon faith. Mormon youths, anywhere from the age of about twelve to twenty and beyond, receive a blessing by laying on of hands by a male member of the church who holds what is called the melchizedek priesthood and has been ordained to the office of a patriarch. The blessing is recorded for the individual on paper and includes blessings the individual may experience in their future life contingent upon their faithfulness.

Text

Please See Text Attached as PDF.

Texture

The interview itself was obviously a bit choppy due to technical difficulties with Facetime. And Tim’s speech was also a bit choppy in general as he decided how to tell this to me. But Tim’s manner was very comfortable, cheerful, and natural. It is clear that Tim is a storyteller at heart. His inflections and tone were very engaging, and he is very open about his faith and his beliefs. However, Tim did tell me the first time he told this story that he does not tell this story very often; hardly at all, in fact, because it is so sacred to him. So this is a big deal to be hearing it from him again. As a last note, I use the word “storyteller” to describe Tim. But this was not merely a story to him. This was fact. And it was apparent that prospect of this man actually being a supernatural being was probable to him.

Course

ENGL 2210: Introduction to Folklore

Instructor

Dr. Lynn S. McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G7: Appearances or Manifestations of Supernatural Beings or Revenants

EAD Number

1.1.1.7.31

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