Many years ago, during the law school phase of my life, I received an unusual invitation from a fellow student to attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple. I was taken a bit by surprise. I had not thought of this colleague as an avid temple-goer. I inquired further. "Do you get to the temple often?" I asked. "As often as I can with my studies and work and all. But you see — the temple is my island."

Interesting, I thought — an island in the center of the city — but it was descriptive. As I pondered that thought I realized that my friend, like many of us, had to be struggling in his attempts to be a good husband and father, to pay the rent and buy the groceries, and to do his home teaching. Not to mention the countless hours required to read and process huge amounts of material before class the next morning and be ready for the intense cross-examination that was sure to come.

It was obvious my friend was not just attending the temple because he felt a duty to go, but that he had come to know, as have many others, that within the walls of the temple there is a calm and a peace that provides a respite from the worries and clamour of the world.

I have thought about his comment many times since those challenging days in the 1950s.

Later on I was to recall those words again during a conversation with a former temple president who confided that he had really not felt the fullness of the Spirit in the temple until he was able to be within the walls of that sacred edifice more often than a casual regimen would provide.

Hear our prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, speaking at a conference in England in 1995: "Do you long for peace in your heart and an opportunity to commune with the Lord and meditate upon His way? Go to the house of the Lord and there feel of His spirit and commune with Him and you will know a peace that you will find nowhere else."

As one who spends substantial blocks of time in the Salt Lake Temple, I can attest to the truth of that statement. For there is a spirit of peace and tranquility that is present and is perceptible. And those who come prepared may avail themselves of this great blessing.

President James E. Faust, then of the Quorum of the Twelve, spoke of the blessings of the temple in April 1992 general conference. "We believe in the gift of healing. To me this gift extends to the healing of both the body and the spirit. The Spirit speaks peace to the soul. . . . The Lord has provided many avenues by which we may receive this healing influence. I am grateful that the Lord has restored temple work to the earth. . . .

"Our temples provide a sanctuary where we may go to lay aside many of the anxieties of the world. Our temples are places of peace and tranquility. In these hallowed sanctuaries God 'Healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.' " (Psalm 147:3.)

And so we need to understand that temples are very much for the living as well as for the very important work we do for our kindred dead.

How blessed we are as a Church and a people as we see temples beginning to dot the earth as the prophets have foretold. This is a very significant time we are living in. Clearly it is the greatest era of temple building of which we have record.

Here we might also remember a statement President Spencer W. Kimball made to the effect that implicit in the building of temples is the principle of regular temple attendance by the saints.

And while the great number of temples being constructed signals the tremendous work we must accomplish for our kindred dead, we should also be more grateful to a kind and loving Father and His Son for the blessing of these sacred edifices as sanctuaries where we may go to find solace and peace and inspiration as we face the challenges and stresses of our ever increasingly complex world.

God be thanked for temples.

W. Eugene Hansen, an emeritus General Authority, is president of the Salt Lake Temple. He and his wife, Jeanine S. Hansen, temple matron, are members of the Bonneville 1st Ward, Salt Lake Bonneville Stake.