Caiping Sun

Caiping Sun, age 61, passed away at her home in West Valley City, Utah in the early hours of March 7, 2024, after a ten-year battle with cancer. She is survived by her husband, David Acree, siblings including younger brother Tian Bao Sun, younger sister Cai Lin Sun, older sister Cai Lan Sun all of Dali, Shaanxi Province, China. An older brother Tian Cai Sun preceded her in death along with three older brothers who died before she was born.

Caiping was born October 5, 1962, in Dali, Shaanxi Province, China to her father, Nanjing SUN and mother Meihua ZHU.

In 1986 she graduated from Hua Zhong University in Wuhan, China with a Bachelor degree, teaching English there for two years before transferring to Xi'an Shi You University in Xi'an, China where she taught English more than 20 years.

From March 2006 to August 2007 Caiping served as a missionary in Davis California, Santa Rosa Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, becoming one of the first missionaries to serve from China. Following, she had opportunity to study at Brigham Young University completing in June 2010 a Master degree in Teaching English as a Second Language. During her time at BYU, Caiping served as a course developer at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

Returning to China in 2010, she continued her university teaching career in Xi'an, China until marrying her husband in 2012 and moving to Utah where Caiping began a new career teaching early elementary students in the Chinese Immersion Program at Eastlake Elementary in Daybreak, Utah.

Caiping also served as a Chinese language coordinator volunteer during her teaching time in Utah, assisting and coordinating Chinese translations for church conferences and events.

Caiping once described herself as warm hearted, loved to serve, and wished she could have been a mother to many children. In many ways she came to view the children in her elementary classes and university classes as her children.

Caiping loved teaching and loved her students. She tried to teach her elementary students to be honest, to be kind, and work hard. She felt if they did, they could be happy and be successful. She hated cancer because it stopped her teaching.

To become a friend of Caiping was to become a friend for life. She never forgot your name. Her smile tended to bring a ray of sunshine into the hearts of many who were sick in body or spirit, or simply having a bad day. Caiping was a wonderful human being who tended to see good in the most difficult people.

Memorial service for Caiping will be held at 10:30 AM on Saturday, March 9, 2024, in the Highbury Ward Building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located at 3372 South Merry Lane (5275 West), West Valley City, Utah.

Caiping loved God, loved her students, loved her friends, and was a wonderful wife to her husband, David. Until we meet again, she will be missed.