On 28 July 1847, four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, President
Brigham Young stood on the spot where the Salt Lake Temple now stands. He

struck his cane on the ground and said, "Right here will stand the temple of our
God" (in Wilford Woodruff, Deseret Evening News, 25 July 1888, 2). Thus the
sacrifice and blessings of building another temple began.
Elder John A. Widtsoe of the Quorum of the Twelve said, "The pioneers were
hungry and weary; they needed food and rest; a hostile desert looked them in the
face; yet in the midst of such physical requirements they turned first to the building
of temples and to the spiritual food and strength that the temples provide" (in
Conference Report, Apr. 1943, 38).
Within one week after President Young marked the spot for the temple, the Saints
began surveying the new city, with the temple at the center of the survey. The
layout of the city focused the people on the temple.

President Howard W. Hunter taught: "We ... emphasize the personal blessings
of temple worship and the sanctity and safety that are provided within those
hallowed walls. It is the house of the Lord, a place of revelation and of peace. As
we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the
significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make the
temple, with temple worship and temple covenants and temple marriage, our
ultimate earthly goal and the supreme mortal experience....