When Bertha Katherine and Lars Peter Anderson heard about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1884, they joined immediately and, even though both of their families disowned them, left their home in Denmark soon after their baptism to join the saints in America. The missionary who taught them the gospel, Thomas S. Lund, was returning home to Ephraim, and he suggested that they come with him.

They sailed on the S.S. Devonia and then traveled by train and wagon to Ephraim. They had three little children and the fourth was born two days after they arrived. The train was so uncomfortable for Bertha that she laid on the floor trying to get some rest. When they arrived in Ephraim the Lund family welcomed them with open arms, even though they were dirty and very weary from their long difficult journey.

They established a homestead in Dry Canyon in the mountains west of Ephraim. On June 7, 1908, Lars, then 54 years old, he was stung by a bee and within 20 minutes he was dead. By this time there were 11 children. The only money they had was one silver dollar.

Ephraim’s Bonnie Anderson Olson’s father, Merrill Joseph, Lars’ ninth son, was only 14 when his father died but he and his four brothers worked with their mother to prove the homestead. The family moved into town so the children could attend school. Their home still stands at 2nd North and 2nd West, although it has been much changed over the years.

Merrill later bought the old homestead from his mother and continued to farm the property.

Bonnie remembers her grandmother, Bertha, as a sweet old lady with her long white hair pulled up in a bun on top of her head. “By the time I came long she was living with her daughter-in-law and didn't do much, I guess she was tired.” Bonnie’s aunt Mary said it was no trouble having grandma in her home because she loved her so.

Bertha loved the leaders of the church and it was her dream, to one day hear one of them speak and so, after they had been in Ephraim about a year, and Church Apostle Joseph F. Smith came to speak in the Ephraim Tabernacle, she was determined to attend. She was reminded by friends that, since she did not speak English, she would not understand him. But she went anyway, if only to see him. After the meeting she expressed delight at Brother Smith’s ability to speak such beautiful Danish, she understood every word. Joseph F. Smith did not speak Danish, except to Bertha’s ears.

There were ten living children when Bertha passed away in 1950 at age 94. Her daughter, Lillian, died of scarlet fever when she was a teenager and was only the second person buried in the “new” Ephraim cemetery. Bertha was healthy all her life, she said she “never had time to enjoy being sick.” In Bertha Katherine Anderson’s words, “life has been hard, but it has been good.”