I was born 1820 in Branderslev, Denmark. My mother died when I was three weeks old. My father was an officer in the Danish army, I was taken by my mother's sister, Kristina, to raise until I was ten years old when father remarried. At 23 I married Peter mathiasen Makkeprang of my same hometown. Peter followed the same trade as his forefathers for 200 years before as a tanner and shoemaker. In order to get a diploma for his trade of shoemaking, he was required to take a measurement for a pair of boots and a pair of fine lady's slippers and cut them out and produce them without a pattern. When the instructor put his pattern on, it was exactly right, so he received his diploma. Peter often took in apprentices to learn the trade. However, we soon became tired of the city life and moved out in the country. We took with us a boy who had been mistreated by his father. The boy soon married, and Peter built a home for him.

When we heard the restored gospel from the missionaries in Denmark, I accepted the message readily feeling in my soul that it was of divine authority and I just knew that Peter would soon see the light. I was baptized in the spring of 1854. After the harvest, when Peter had joined the Church, we moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where we lived for one year, Peter was called as a missionary among our countrymen during our stay in Copenhagen.

We then began to make preparations for our journey to Zion. My anxiety was great for our children in undertaking such a journey , but I was given a blessing that I would reach Zion with all of my family, although I was very weak having recently given birth to our seventh child Anna Eva. Our baby was five weeks old when we started on our way across the Atlantic. I was very sick crossing the sea unable to leave my bed below decks, I clung to that promised blessing knowing that the Lord would fulfill His promise. Our journey lasted eleven weeks and five days and every mother on our ship grieved for the loss of at least one of their children. However, in his tender mercy the Lord preserved even our little Eva and all 9 of our family reached America safely.

We then traveled across the Great Plains by Ox team. At the Missouri River we had to leave all the luggage that was not absolutely necessary to our existence. We left most of our earthly possessions on the banks of that swollen river but I must confess that I smuggled some fine cloth that I had bought for the children for extra clothes. On reaching our destination we turned this same cloth into the tithing office in gratitude to the Lord. We have always made the greatest effort to be honest with Him in our tithes and offerings.

With the sale of our belongings we were able to help four young people from our branch in Denmark emigrate with us as far as Salt Lake City, These young people moved to Sanpete County to live with their relatives who had come to this country before them. We were sent south.

We located in the Old Fort, northwest of what is now Cedar City, Utah arriving in the fall of 1856. We lived in the Old Fort for many years and then moved up to the "New City." We lived at first in a shed with willows woven around to form a room. During the summer we built two rooms above it, the children carried the water from the creek and helped mix the adobes. This was one of the first houses built in Cedar City,

Peter and I were endowed and sealed to each other in 1859 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

Our dear Bishop Lunt offered us the privilege on many occasions of preparing meals and housing for members of the Quorum of the Twelve when they would arrive for conferences or visits. We always did all we could to make them comfortable.

We tried to be very hospitable and the emigrants from the north would try to arrange their drives so as to "make Brother Mackelprang's" for the night. It was not an uncommon site for twenty outfits to be camping in and out of our lot.

Peter and I were called to receive our second anointing in the temple not long before he died. I was able to join him 15 years later in 1908.

Peter and I are the parents of Christina Makkeprang Chatterley.