Happy Memorial Day!

Earthquake in China

I'm sure you've all ready about the devastating earthquake in China today. I sent out an email to some friends and family members letting everyone know we were alright but I just wanted to put up a post because I don't have everyone's email on hand.

As you probably saw on the news, the earthquake was in Sichuan Provence, which is about 900 miles from Beijing. It mostly effected the city of Chengdu, which is famous for Panda's. I visited this city in October and was able to even hold a baby panda at the research center.

We were actually at home when the quake occurred and all of a sudden our building started swaying. I was on the bed and I felt it start to move. I looked up and saw the door moving back and forth. It felt like we were on a boat. Aaron and I immediately gathered our money, passports and computers and headed downstairs to get as far away from our building as possible. We thought that either the building was about to collapse or that there was an earthquake. The guard in our building said it was nothing but we were not convinced. We live on the 16th floor and the higher you are the more you feel. We later heard it was an earthquake all the way down in Sichuan so we were able to come back to our building without any problems. At first we read that only a handful of people were killed but I knew that if I felt and saw our building move 900 miles away that the devastation was much larger. We are now reading about the thousands of people who have been killed and feel so blessed that we are ok. I really hope that the Panda's are ok too.

Please keep those who were effected by this devastation in your prayers.

Love,

Aaron and Kristyn

Josh's Wedding by Heidi

Just a few photos of the Walls partying at Josh and Cris' Wedding. It was a wonderful

and spiritual day. I just wanted to say how great it has been for me and our family to be part of the Wall family, besides the fact that they have great parties. Even when we lived out of state we always felt a wonderful sense of belonging and welcome. Thanks to Grandma Deon Wall, there were many extended family functions that were held and everyone was invited (sometimes commanded, very nicely) to come. It was just expected that everyone went to everything. It was such a wonderful tradition, that has continued thanks to Gary and Joan and the love and enjoyment we have of each other. When I saw the third generation of cousins dancing with each other, Jack swinging with all the girl cousins(wait until he turns 16), Bryden dancing with a much older cousin because she asked him and Justin and Spencer and Iuni showing the younger guys how to dance, it was great. It made me think of the great relationships that the previous generation of cousins and 2nd cousins have, they have supported each other through rough spots in life, have strengthened each others testimonies, and been great friends.

We have lots of diversity and different strengths and abilities and that has only helped us be more accepting of of others that are different. When you are a Wall you know that there are lots of Walls out there that love you.

Ni Hao from Nicole, Jared, Kristyn and Aaron

Nicole and Jared have been in China for the past two weeks and we have been having a blast!  We have traveled to Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou and spent a week in Beijing enjoying the beautiful weather.  They are going home tomorrow and we are all sad that the vacation is coming to an end.  The highlights (besides sightseeing) were getting massages, buying purses and jewlery and karaoke!  Nicole learned that she actually likes Chinese food and she learned how to use chopsticks too.  It was such a fun time!  Can't wait until Lisa, Kristi and Emili arrive and Matt and Jessica are going to be here for the Olympics to stay tuned for more fun updates from China.