"Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature," President Thomas S. Monson said in his address Sunday morning.

"There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required."President Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, directed an appeal to young people that they "give life a chance" and "apply the virtue of patience."

"In sickness, with its attendant pain, patience is required," he said. "If the only perfect man who ever lived - even Jesus of Nazareth - was called upon to endure great suffering, how can we, who are less than perfect, expect to be free of such challenges?

He said the virtue of patience can be a helpful companion to the lonely, the aged, the helpless - those who "feel abandoned by the caravan of life."

He spoke of a young friend, Wendy Bennion of Salt Lake City, who struggled for more than five years in her battle with cancer before succumbing Sept. 29. He said that Wendy was "ever cheerful, always helping others, never losing faith." He said she had a "contagious smile that attracted others to her as a magnet attracts metal shavings." He related how Wendy, ignoring her own pain, spent a long time one day with a friend who was downcast. He said that when her mother asked her about having spent so much time with her visitor, she replied, " `What I was doing for my friend was more important than the pain I was having. If I can help her, then the pain is worth it.' "

President Monson said Wendy's attitude was reminiscent of the Savior, who bore the sorrows of the world, patiently suffered excruciating pain and disappointment.

"In a very real way He visits us, each one, with His teachings. He brings cheer and inspires goodness. He gave His precious life that the grave would be deprived of its victory, that death would lose its sting, that life eternal would be our gift."

President Monson said perhaps there has never occurred such a demonstration of patience as that exemplified by Job, who was described as being perfect and upright and one who feared God and eschewed evil. "Job lost possessions - all of them. Job lost his health - all of it. Job honored the trust given him. Job personified patience."

Another who portrayed the virtue of patience, he said, was the Prophet Joseph Smith, who suffered derision for his beliefs, yet remained faithful.

President Monson suggested looking back to a lesson of "stop, look and listen" taught to children as they cross dangerous streets. "Stop from a reckless road to ruin. Look upward for heavenly help. Listen for His invitation: `Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' " (Matt. 11:28.)

President Monson told of having gone to eastern Germany in August. He said he was reminded of tense scenes during his first visit 27 years earlier. "Back then, the flame of freedom had flickered and burned low," he related. "A wall of shame sprang up, and a curtain of iron came down. Hope was all but snuffed out. Life . . . continued on in faith, nothing wavering. Patient waiting was required. An abiding trust in God marked the life of each Latter-day Saint.

"When I made my initial visit beyond the wall, it was a time of fear on the part of our members as they struggled in the performance of their duties. I found the dullness of despair on the faces of many passersby but a bright and beautiful expression of love emanating from our members."

President Monson said that he was touched by the members' sincerity, and humbled by their poverty. "They had so little," he said. "My heart filled with sorrow because they had no patriarch. They had no wards or stakes - just branches. They could not receive temple blessings - neither endowment nor sealing. No official visitor had come from Church headquarters in a long time. The members were forbidden to leave the country. Yet, they trusted in the Lord with all their hearts, and they leaned not to their own understanding. In all their ways they acknowledged Him, and He directed their paths. I stood at the pulpit, and with tear-filled eyes and a voice choked with emotion, I made a promise to the people: `If you will remain true and faithful to the commandments of God, every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours.' "

President Monson said that the heavenly virtue of patience was required. "Little by little the promise was fulfilled," he said. "First, patriarchs were ordained, then lesson manuals produced. Wards were formed and stakes created. Chapels and stake centers were begun, completed and dedicated. Then miracle of miracles, a holy temple of God was permitted, . . . Finally, after an absence of 50 years, approval was granted for full-time missionaries to enter the nation and for local youth to serve elsewhere in the world. Then, like the wall of Jericho, the Berlin Wall crumbled and freedom, with its attendant responsibilities, returned.

The final part of the promise was fulfilled when President Monson and his wife, Frances, and Elder Dieter Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet, went to Goerlitz, the very city where the promise was given 27 years earlier, and dedicated a beautiful meetinghouse there Aug. 27. The precious promise was thus fulfilled.