We have had a few busy weeks, so I have not posted.  The next three posts will break down the miraculous experience we have had as we have gotten to know our St, John's, Arizona ancestors and some of their descendants in a more intimate way.  The first part will be about finding my 3rd cousin Neal Lambson; the second part about our trip to St. John's; and the third, things I have learned since our trip.

FINDING NEAL

    

The most remarkable thing has happened in the past few weeks.

One of the things Jeanne and I wanted to do while in Arizona was to visit the farming town of St. John’s in the northeast corner of the state.  According to the scant research I had conducted, it appeared this small community on the Little Colorado River had been settled by assignment to two of my ancestral families, the Lambsons and the Stradlings. In fact, we already had reserved Memorial Day weekend to visit there and a few other sights in that part of the state.  Jeanne had a few names of people with those family names in that area, so we were hopeful.

Much was our surprise, however, when our Mission President returned from a conference of Mission Presidents several weeks ago.  At the end of the conference he was riding in a shuttle to the airport with the President of the Arizona Tucson Mission when the conversation turned to vehicles.  The Tucson President mentioned that his vehicle coordinator was Elder Lambson, and President Collins wasn’t sure if he heard right.  When he confirmed, he almost laughingly stated that HIS vehicle coordinator was also Elder Lambson.  They exchanged contact information, and at our next meeting, President Collins reported this conversation to Jeanne and I.

If you know anything about Jeanne, you know she took it from there.  She contacted Elder Neal Lambson, and suggested we come down to Tucson on a Saturday, and maybe go to lunch together.  After a few days of considering that, Neal called back with a proposal of his own.  Why didn’t we come down Friday evening and spend the night at their place?  They had an extra bedroom with an attached bathroom that they often boarded Elders in when they arrived or on transfers, but it was usually available.  That way we could spend more time getting acquainted, go to dinner, have breakfast together the following morning, and maybe go to the Temple.  We did some checking, made some arrangements, and the next Friday afternoon we were off to Tucson.

After you get past Chandler, the path to Tucson (about 2 hours) is not pretty until you start to close in, so we were glad when we began hitting the outlying communities.  What Tucson is, however counter-intuitively, is COOLER.  Even though it is 2 hours south of Phoenix, it is higher in elevation, which translates to a 10-15 degree difference.  We felt it as soon as we stepped out of the car.

Neal and his wife Claire were so welcoming.  He is a short, larger-than-life guy who does everything in a big way.  Not surprisingly, Claire is a quiet, intelligent woman, who paints beautifully.  She  will take on many subjects, and has some nice landscapes hanging, but her favorite  is portraits and painting involving people.  Neal also dabbles, but he has many interests.

At any rate, after chatting and putting our luggage inside, we headed over to Sweet Tomatoes, one of their favorite haunts.  It turns out Claire is also celiac, and this restaurant offers some good gluten-free alternatives.

Long story short (TOO LATE!)…we had a wonderful time.  We found that Neal’s great grandfather Frank Bates and my great-grandfather Armus Arba, were brothers, making us 3^rd cousins.  They fed us a lovely breakfast the next morning and we made the temple session we had chosen.  Following hugs and pictures outside the Tucson temple, we parted ways with new found family members, but it gets even better…

Neal is from St. John’s, and has a brother Delbert still living there.  He has two houses in St. John’s, and knows many of the locals.  He also told us of a Lambson Family Reunion that is held every year on either the 4^th or last week of June (we need to clarify) in Rama, New Mexico, another longtime hotbed for Lambsons. He is in charge of the one in 2019, just after our missions, which we plan to attend. 

Though we still would have visited St. John’s, one has to wonder if it would have been as productive but for the conversation of two mission presidents.