person0

Have you received a witness from the Holy Ghost testifying of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon?  If not, that is 100% okay, however, you definitely want to start there, in seeking and receiving that.  Whatever personal assurances you have of the truthfulness of the gospel (as presented in the LDS Church) will always be a source to rely on for strength.  Building that personal testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel should be priority number 1.  Eventually, your perception of everything else should fall into place as long as you don't harden your heart against it.
Regarding your other concerns, there are few here who would not highly value eternal (temple) marriage, and families.  My father, who is Muslim, did not speak to me for three years following my marriage (however, I was initially told it was going to be forever).  This was not because he couldn't attend, but because he felt that there was no longer a real hope that I would ever convert to Islam.  My wife and I are unable to have our own children and eventually decided to foster/adopt.  I would never have been able to make these significant life decisions without a strong testimony of the restored gospel.
The truth is the truth, there is nothing you or I or anyone else can do to change it.  Either the commandments you have asked about are true, or the are not.  Each of us must determine this for ourselves.  It is not really a decision, more so preparation and revelation.  God will tell you if it's what he wants for you or not, and in His time.  Focus on your testimony and things will fall in line as they should.  For all you know, you may never be called to marry in this life anyway, or, God may bestow upon you a drastic change of heart and you will actively start to desire and seek it.

On my mission I was given raspberry iced tea to drink by someone when tracting.  I drank it, completely oblivious, and so did my companion.    The whole time I was wondering why it tasted a bit weird.  Then upon leaving I finally realized what it was because I have had iced tea a couple of times since my grandmother used to drink it.  I told my companion that I'm pretty sure we had just drunken tea.  We both shrugged it off because we could not reasonably have known.  I'm pretty sure situations like this generally fall under the Corinthians 10:27 rule, and I just keep on going with a clear conscience.

Since you've only been a member for such a short time, I suggest you put your concerns on the back burner for now and just focus on your testimony. Take things line upon line, precept upon precept and don't worry about those issues you mentioned right now.  

God loves you, he wants us to be successful, wants us to overcome our demons, wants us to return to his presence. He knows what's in your heart. He knows of your desires to conquer these things. It is a terrible thing to walk through life thinking that you don't measure up, and feel guilty all of the time. I can assure that the Lord does not want this for you. He wants you to hold your head up high.
My advice on the first thing masturbation, there are 2 parts to this issue.  Part one: Since it seems that this is an ongoing problem you should see your bishop and begin the repentance process, normally I would say this is on the home repentance program but in your case it seems to be a bigger issue so see your bishop and get on the right spiritual track. God is not going to punish you, you want to stop and are going to take the correct steps to stop. He knows that it is a progression and we all have different crosses to bare. Part 2: you have been in counseling, go back. Your masterbation is not going to stop just because you see the bishop there are deeper problems, a void that you are trying to fill. You need to figure out what that is and your bishop while I am sure is a good man is not a trained therapist.
Scripture reading, there is no eternal mandate that says you must read your scriptures daily. It is recommended but no eternal consequences, same with listening to a song with a swear word, skipping a prayer, or skipping sunday school.  Disclaimer: I am not saying that you should do these things they should be avoided but everyone slips up and hell fire and brimstone are not awaiting them.

Perhaps not Google--but Psychology Today has a great filter.  The following link is to therapists in Salt Lake City, UT who use CBT, and identify as Mormon:  https://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/prof_results.php?sid=1474391574.4782_18502&city=Salt+Lake+City&county=Salt+Lake&state=UT&spec=293&spec=408
 
You can filter for other locations, for other faiths, for gender, and for specific issues. 

Thank you.  It's good to be back and participating again. 

Welcome back, @person0!

Well, I may have picked the wrong day to jump back in here, because I am highly inexperienced in the realm of Isaiah, but I'll see if I can find a few interesting things.
Most of the time, the wicked of the world are also those who vehemently reject the Lord, or at best are those who claim a form of godliness, yet deny the power thereof.  How many SJW's are also proclaiming and rejoicing in Christ and the Father?  Sadly, much of the world and society at large no longer rejoice in Christ, even to the point of persecuting him, and those who follow him.  There is a disparity of people, both in and out of the Church who are faithful in their testimony of Jesus.  And the subsequent verses clearly convey the true justice awaiting the wicked of Babylon.
I think when it all happens, people will be completely flabbergasted.  It's like when you prove a super left wing position wrong with actual facts and data and they just stare at you and have no idea what to say.  They are amazed, and just don't want to believe it.  You can only deny the truth for so long before you must accept it.
An interesting lesson, especially for our youth.  It doesn't really matter if you are doing wicked things; if you are continually associated with or 'joined to' the wicked, you will eventually fall with them.  There are plenty of situations where a mostly innocent individual might receive punishment simply by association.  Avoiding the appearance of evil has its reward.

Most of this chapter exists because Nephi referred to 'these plates' in the previous verse. Since, as is noted below, Nephi didn't know the Lords purpose for wanting the small plates, then whether before or after chiseling verse 1, he realized he was going to have to explain what he meant in case a later reader had not already read, or was not aware of the other plates.  It's interesting how much time and effort we devote in life explaining things to other people that we understand clearly but that they might not understand without additional information.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, simply noteworthy.  We teach people the gospel, and then often must explain to whatever level of depth is needed for it to click in their mind sufficiently that the Spirit can act upon them.  The same happens we teach or learn a new principle and the teacher says something like: "In order to understand what I'm going to teach you, you need to know [x], however, we really aren't going to go into [x] right now, you just have to know about it and then we will go into it more next week. . ."
Just as Adam and others, Nephi was willing to keep the commandments of the Lord for no other reason than the fact that He commanded it.  This is discussed often.  What I find especially interesting on this read through is that Nephi automatically assumed and acknowledged that the purpose for making the additional set of plates was wise.  How many people are more like Jonah at first and fail to consider the infinite wisdom of the Lord, or forget that he is able to do all things.  At this point in his life, Nephi had enough experiences and witnesses that he likely was unwilling to question the Lord.  While unproven, I think it reasonable to assume his pivotal moment was the experience of killing Laban.  Nephi's obedience regarding the plates later made up for Joseph Smith's failure of the same.

As a missionary, I would mark the scriptures so that if I gave my scriptures to an investigator to read, the exact information they needed to gather from the scriptures was highlighted, so that it would pop out as soon as they (inevitably) glanced back after the verse.  Two Examples:
Question:  What was the foundation upon which the church was built?
Question:  What are the three things the scripture tells us that the Holy Ghost will do?
These are the actual colors I use as well (although unimportant):  Orange for anything related to organization, blue for anything related to the spirit and personal revelation, etc, etc, etc.
I have found it beneficial to continue marking my scriptures in this way so that I may look at a verse, re-read it and gain from it each the initial message intended through the restored Gospel, in addition to other ways in which it may speak to me.  I also have other scripture marking methods, but this one is truly dear to me, and highly effective!
Homework:   Try this method going through every verse in the Plan of Salvation section of Preach My Gospel!  This method makes you really ponder a great deal about which words you should highlight because you are thinking about the questions you would ask as well as what words/phrases would pop out to easily answer it.  I was highly uplifted, and was blessed to ponder each of the verses at length gaining way more from them than just what was enough to achieve the initial goal for the investigators.

All, I have been absent for a couple of weeks from the forum due to unexpected stressful, sad and painful events.  I hope to be back in a somewhat more regular capacity, but it may still take me a while.
As some of you know, my wife and I are unable to have children.  After pursuing other options, we determined that becoming a concurrent foster home (meaning foster only for intent to adopt) was the most appropriate route for us to take.  We have been blessed with two beautiful daughters who will be ours for all eternity.  One is already adopted and sealed, the other is just a matter of completing the paperwork.
About 4 months ago, we were blessed to bring in a third child, a precious baby girl.  The child was placed directly into our care from being with actual family who was not in sufficiently good health to care for her.  That family member (great aunt) has remained in contact with us and that whole side of the family came to her birthday party, etc.  The family developed a relationship with us and wanted us to be her adoptive parents.  The state recently decided they have their own plan.  In an unexpected turn of events, state foster workers took her from our home last Wednesday (they notified us a week prior) and placed her in the care of a different family for the sole reason that she would be with her 3 older biological brothers, whom she had never before met.  They ripped a child from a stable loving environment for only that purpose.  My wife and I took every action we could consider to fight against this decision, as we are absolutely certain it was not within the best interest of this child who has a strong attachment to my wife, my daughters, and I.  We were able to convince the child's social worker, and her supervisor, but it was a supervisor above her, who never had any interaction with us, the child, or the child's brothers or new foster family, who made this rash decision.  The child's family and former caretakers are also grief stricken about the decision and are looking into other options to fight against it, as they also feel it is in the best interest of the child to remain with us.
This has brought on a great slew of emotions for our entire family.  We have been devastated by this experience.  It is hard to bear the though of someone raising who we consider to be our child, knowing we may never be able to see her again.  We are strengthened by our faith, and our love for one another.  However, I no longer believe in the foster system workers actual concern for the specific welfare of each child.
There are many different factors at play here, and I know it is difficult to lay them all out for everyone.  Suffice it to say, we are confident that we and the family are right and the decision made was wrong and not based on the child's situation and needs, but merely an arbitrary decision to combine biological siblings.  Federal law requires reasonable efforts (with some exclusions such as in our case) to combine siblings in order to preserve funding.  I believe this decision was made with funding in the mind of the decision maker.
I may be in and out over the coming weeks and months as my family strives to deal with this, but wanted to give an update for anyone who may have wondered about where I went.

All, I have been absent for a couple of weeks from the forum due to unexpected stressful, sad and painful events.  I hope to be back in a somewhat more regular capacity, but it may still take me a while.
As some of you know, my wife and I are unable to have children.  After pursuing other options, we determined that becoming a concurrent foster home (meaning foster only for intent to adopt) was the most appropriate route for us to take.  We have been blessed with two beautiful daughters who will be ours for all eternity.  One is already adopted and sealed, the other is just a matter of completing the paperwork.
About 4 months ago, we were blessed to bring in a third child, a precious baby girl.  The child was placed directly into our care from being with actual family who was not in sufficiently good health to care for her.  That family member (great aunt) has remained in contact with us and that whole side of the family came to her birthday party, etc.  The family developed a relationship with us and wanted us to be her adoptive parents.  The state recently decided they have their own plan.  In an unexpected turn of events, state foster workers took her from our home last Wednesday (they notified us a week prior) and placed her in the care of a different family for the sole reason that she would be with her 3 older biological brothers, whom she had never before met.  They ripped a child from a stable loving environment for only that purpose.  My wife and I took every action we could consider to fight against this decision, as we are absolutely certain it was not within the best interest of this child who has a strong attachment to my wife, my daughters, and I.  We were able to convince the child's social worker, and her supervisor, but it was a supervisor above her, who never had any interaction with us, the child, or the child's brothers or new foster family, who made this rash decision.  The child's family and former caretakers are also grief stricken about the decision and are looking into other options to fight against it, as they also feel it is in the best interest of the child to remain with us.
This has brought on a great slew of emotions for our entire family.  We have been devastated by this experience.  It is hard to bear the though of someone raising who we consider to be our child, knowing we may never be able to see her again.  We are strengthened by our faith, and our love for one another.  However, I no longer believe in the foster system workers actual concern for the specific welfare of each child.
There are many different factors at play here, and I know it is difficult to lay them all out for everyone.  Suffice it to say, we are confident that we and the family are right and the decision made was wrong and not based on the child's situation and needs, but merely an arbitrary decision to combine biological siblings.  Federal law requires reasonable efforts (with some exclusions such as in our case) to combine siblings in order to preserve funding.  I believe this decision was made with funding in the mind of the decision maker.
I may be in and out over the coming weeks and months as my family strives to deal with this, but wanted to give an update for anyone who may have wondered about where I went.

All, I have been absent for a couple of weeks from the forum due to unexpected stressful, sad and painful events.  I hope to be back in a somewhat more regular capacity, but it may still take me a while.
As some of you know, my wife and I are unable to have children.  After pursuing other options, we determined that becoming a concurrent foster home (meaning foster only for intent to adopt) was the most appropriate route for us to take.  We have been blessed with two beautiful daughters who will be ours for all eternity.  One is already adopted and sealed, the other is just a matter of completing the paperwork.
About 4 months ago, we were blessed to bring in a third child, a precious baby girl.  The child was placed directly into our care from being with actual family who was not in sufficiently good health to care for her.  That family member (great aunt) has remained in contact with us and that whole side of the family came to her birthday party, etc.  The family developed a relationship with us and wanted us to be her adoptive parents.  The state recently decided they have their own plan.  In an unexpected turn of events, state foster workers took her from our home last Wednesday (they notified us a week prior) and placed her in the care of a different family for the sole reason that she would be with her 3 older biological brothers, whom she had never before met.  They ripped a child from a stable loving environment for only that purpose.  My wife and I took every action we could consider to fight against this decision, as we are absolutely certain it was not within the best interest of this child who has a strong attachment to my wife, my daughters, and I.  We were able to convince the child's social worker, and her supervisor, but it was a supervisor above her, who never had any interaction with us, the child, or the child's brothers or new foster family, who made this rash decision.  The child's family and former caretakers are also grief stricken about the decision and are looking into other options to fight against it, as they also feel it is in the best interest of the child to remain with us.
This has brought on a great slew of emotions for our entire family.  We have been devastated by this experience.  It is hard to bear the though of someone raising who we consider to be our child, knowing we may never be able to see her again.  We are strengthened by our faith, and our love for one another.  However, I no longer believe in the foster system workers actual concern for the specific welfare of each child.
There are many different factors at play here, and I know it is difficult to lay them all out for everyone.  Suffice it to say, we are confident that we and the family are right and the decision made was wrong and not based on the child's situation and needs, but merely an arbitrary decision to combine biological siblings.  Federal law requires reasonable efforts (with some exclusions such as in our case) to combine siblings in order to preserve funding.  I believe this decision was made with funding in the mind of the decision maker.
I may be in and out over the coming weeks and months as my family strives to deal with this, but wanted to give an update for anyone who may have wondered about where I went.

God bless you for what you're doing here, even though it often hurts.  Although you folks got the short end of the stick here, I understand why people make such a case to be made for keeping bio kids together whenever possible.
They're hoping the story turns out like this: http://newsok.com/article/5544655.  
I'm not saying who is right, I'm just in awe at folks like you, who are willing to do your absolute best.  
 

So sorry, @person0 that you and your family are having such trials.  I'll pray for all of you.  We've missed you, but family comes first.

My parents went through the same thing, @person0, at least with respect to the part where your heart gets ripped out because the government  decides to take a foster child away. I think your feelings are entirely normal, it shows your are a good parent.

I feel for you @person0!  I pray that things work out for the best for you and the child. 
We have a similar story in our ward where one family who decided to adopt a child went through a "ripping".  They adopted a 5-year-old boy from Russia and so they met the child at the orphanage, prayed about it, and got a sure confirmation that he should be with them, so they applied for adoption and while the paper work was getting processed, built a relationship with the child.  A few days before the paperwork was supposed to be completed, the orphanage administrators found a biological relative - some uncle or something who didn't know about the child's existence, and so they offered him priority over the child.  This broke their hearts and made them question the answer to their prayers.  The orphanage encouraged them to check out the other children - a 7 year old girl and a 4 year old boy.  It took them a while to make a decision wary of getting hurt again.  But, for some reason, they felt impressed to go ahead and apply for the other boy but felt bad for the other girl so they went ahead and applied for her too.  They were getting ready to go back to the US when the uncle showed up with the first boy and said he can't take care of the child.  They ended up going back to the US with 3 children instead of the 1 they planned on.  They already have 2 biological children so they ended up as a family of 7!   The crazy thing is... all 7 of them have such similar features and similar mannerisms that people are surprised to know they're not all biologically related to each other.  The biological daughter and the adopted daughter, for example, have the same straight fine blonde hair and are both musical.  The biological son and both adopted sons have the same color eyes and have some form of special needs - the bio and one adopted have dyslexia, etc.  It's like the parents just gathered the rest of their "flock" from the other side of the world.

All, I have been absent for a couple of weeks from the forum due to unexpected stressful, sad and painful events.  I hope to be back in a somewhat more regular capacity, but it may still take me a while.
As some of you know, my wife and I are unable to have children.  After pursuing other options, we determined that becoming a concurrent foster home (meaning foster only for intent to adopt) was the most appropriate route for us to take.  We have been blessed with two beautiful daughters who will be ours for all eternity.  One is already adopted and sealed, the other is just a matter of completing the paperwork.
About 4 months ago, we were blessed to bring in a third child, a precious baby girl.  The child was placed directly into our care from being with actual family who was not in sufficiently good health to care for her.  That family member (great aunt) has remained in contact with us and that whole side of the family came to her birthday party, etc.  The family developed a relationship with us and wanted us to be her adoptive parents.  The state recently decided they have their own plan.  In an unexpected turn of events, state foster workers took her from our home last Wednesday (they notified us a week prior) and placed her in the care of a different family for the sole reason that she would be with her 3 older biological brothers, whom she had never before met.  They ripped a child from a stable loving environment for only that purpose.  My wife and I took every action we could consider to fight against this decision, as we are absolutely certain it was not within the best interest of this child who has a strong attachment to my wife, my daughters, and I.  We were able to convince the child's social worker, and her supervisor, but it was a supervisor above her, who never had any interaction with us, the child, or the child's brothers or new foster family, who made this rash decision.  The child's family and former caretakers are also grief stricken about the decision and are looking into other options to fight against it, as they also feel it is in the best interest of the child to remain with us.
This has brought on a great slew of emotions for our entire family.  We have been devastated by this experience.  It is hard to bear the though of someone raising who we consider to be our child, knowing we may never be able to see her again.  We are strengthened by our faith, and our love for one another.  However, I no longer believe in the foster system workers actual concern for the specific welfare of each child.
There are many different factors at play here, and I know it is difficult to lay them all out for everyone.  Suffice it to say, we are confident that we and the family are right and the decision made was wrong and not based on the child's situation and needs, but merely an arbitrary decision to combine biological siblings.  Federal law requires reasonable efforts (with some exclusions such as in our case) to combine siblings in order to preserve funding.  I believe this decision was made with funding in the mind of the decision maker.
I may be in and out over the coming weeks and months as my family strives to deal with this, but wanted to give an update for anyone who may have wondered about where I went.

All, I have been absent for a couple of weeks from the forum due to unexpected stressful, sad and painful events.  I hope to be back in a somewhat more regular capacity, but it may still take me a while.
As some of you know, my wife and I are unable to have children.  After pursuing other options, we determined that becoming a concurrent foster home (meaning foster only for intent to adopt) was the most appropriate route for us to take.  We have been blessed with two beautiful daughters who will be ours for all eternity.  One is already adopted and sealed, the other is just a matter of completing the paperwork.
About 4 months ago, we were blessed to bring in a third child, a precious baby girl.  The child was placed directly into our care from being with actual family who was not in sufficiently good health to care for her.  That family member (great aunt) has remained in contact with us and that whole side of the family came to her birthday party, etc.  The family developed a relationship with us and wanted us to be her adoptive parents.  The state recently decided they have their own plan.  In an unexpected turn of events, state foster workers took her from our home last Wednesday (they notified us a week prior) and placed her in the care of a different family for the sole reason that she would be with her 3 older biological brothers, whom she had never before met.  They ripped a child from a stable loving environment for only that purpose.  My wife and I took every action we could consider to fight against this decision, as we are absolutely certain it was not within the best interest of this child who has a strong attachment to my wife, my daughters, and I.  We were able to convince the child's social worker, and her supervisor, but it was a supervisor above her, who never had any interaction with us, the child, or the child's brothers or new foster family, who made this rash decision.  The child's family and former caretakers are also grief stricken about the decision and are looking into other options to fight against it, as they also feel it is in the best interest of the child to remain with us.
This has brought on a great slew of emotions for our entire family.  We have been devastated by this experience.  It is hard to bear the though of someone raising who we consider to be our child, knowing we may never be able to see her again.  We are strengthened by our faith, and our love for one another.  However, I no longer believe in the foster system workers actual concern for the specific welfare of each child.
There are many different factors at play here, and I know it is difficult to lay them all out for everyone.  Suffice it to say, we are confident that we and the family are right and the decision made was wrong and not based on the child's situation and needs, but merely an arbitrary decision to combine biological siblings.  Federal law requires reasonable efforts (with some exclusions such as in our case) to combine siblings in order to preserve funding.  I believe this decision was made with funding in the mind of the decision maker.
I may be in and out over the coming weeks and months as my family strives to deal with this, but wanted to give an update for anyone who may have wondered about where I went.

It's amazing how much pondering on the scriptures can bring the inspiration of the Spirit.  For Nephi it brought great visions.  For all it can help bring a witness of the Savior and the truthfulness of the gospel.  I have gained a further testimony of pondering as I have joined in this study session sponsored by @pam and @Irishgrin.  I have found myself taking more time to ponder each verse and contemplate its significance and have received great treasures of knowledge thus far.  My wife reads my posts and asked me the other day about what I do if I read a chapter and don't have anything stand out in particular, to which I responded that I read it again, and again until I learn something, or make a connection, of which I previously had not been aware.  I haven't studied the scriptures in chapter order before while explicitly using this method.
This goes on throughout the chapter.  What a marvelous experience to have a literal conversation with a member of the Godhead.  From what I am aware, relatively few have been so blessed.  Yet from these events we can trust that it is something with which we may each be blessed if pertinent to our individual profit and learning and God's plan for us.
That's a rather rare occurrence.  The Still Small Voice finds the opportune moment to belt it out there!  I have never personally yet had an experience with the Spirit calling loudly.  I have, however, been filled with the power of the Holy Ghost immensely.  In that experience I knew my testimony could not be ignored by those with whom I was sharing it, and I felt as though I could literally move a mountain if it were expedient.  That was the closest thing I can remember.  An important point here is that, while often when communicating with Man, the Spirit of God acts as a still small voice, there are times when He is needed and used in other capacities.  This is important as we must also know or at least be prepared to recognize when He communicates with us through one of these other mechanisms.
Verse 7 is a clear pattern of instruction line upon line.  It was only after a previous experience had ended that Nephi would be granted further light and knowledge added upon that which he had already received.  This eventually leading up to seeing Christ Himself!
Verse 11 - The fact that the Holy Spirit is in the form of a man was probably a new experience for Nephi.  He felt it was important enough that he explained very clearly that the Spirit looked just like you and I; even going so far as to feel it important to remind us that the Holy Ghost is a still actually a Spirit, yet looks plainly like a man.
Verse 12 - I wonder if the Spirit was both revealing truth and being appropriately humorous in that moment.  'Hey look over here! . . . Made you look!"
Verse 14 - There are many unnamed angels in the scriptures.  This angel shows Nephi may things, including the crucifixion of the Lord.  I will be curious to learn the identity of these unnamed angels.
I wonder why it was important that Nephi tell us he was not able to see or learn much about the 12 apostles?  As I ponder this, the one thing that comes to mind is that he mentions that they followed Christ.  They were not a focus of the dream, but Christ and His ministry was.  Ultimately, even as we heed the words of the apostles and prophets it is Christ who we follow and not any other, we are not of Paul or of cephas, etc.  It may have been important in that moment that Nephi be informed, but not distracted from the focus of his vision, likewise we should avoid distractions from the core focus of our mortal probation, eternity!
Considering the chapter as a whole, we can see that Nephi is being shone not only the vision of his father, but also having it added upon by greater depth of understanding and other portions of the vision interspersed.  Similarly as we read of these accounts, and scriptures in general, we receive not only the witness they bear, but also whatever else the Spirit is able to enlighten us with at the time.

Most of this chapter exists because Nephi referred to 'these plates' in the previous verse. Since, as is noted below, Nephi didn't know the Lords purpose for wanting the small plates, then whether before or after chiseling verse 1, he realized he was going to have to explain what he meant in case a later reader had not already read, or was not aware of the other plates.  It's interesting how much time and effort we devote in life explaining things to other people that we understand clearly but that they might not understand without additional information.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, simply noteworthy.  We teach people the gospel, and then often must explain to whatever level of depth is needed for it to click in their mind sufficiently that the Spirit can act upon them.  The same happens we teach or learn a new principle and the teacher says something like: "In order to understand what I'm going to teach you, you need to know [x], however, we really aren't going to go into [x] right now, you just have to know about it and then we will go into it more next week. . ."
Just as Adam and others, Nephi was willing to keep the commandments of the Lord for no other reason than the fact that He commanded it.  This is discussed often.  What I find especially interesting on this read through is that Nephi automatically assumed and acknowledged that the purpose for making the additional set of plates was wise.  How many people are more like Jonah at first and fail to consider the infinite wisdom of the Lord, or forget that he is able to do all things.  At this point in his life, Nephi had enough experiences and witnesses that he likely was unwilling to question the Lord.  While unproven, I think it reasonable to assume his pivotal moment was the experience of killing Laban.  Nephi's obedience regarding the plates later made up for Joseph Smith's failure of the same.

Notice that Laman and Lemuel are not mentioned to have complained about going back to Jerusalem for the purpose of obtaining wives.  They complained about leaving, they complained about going back for the plates, they complained on the way back with their wives to be, but they sure as heck werent about to complain about going back to get them in the first place.
In fact, the way the record is written, Nephi indicates 'we', as in all 4 of the brothers, spoke the words of the Lord to convince Ishmael to come.  I have to wonder, and personally would assume that Laman and Lemuel's intentions were less than noble.  They probably saw the opportunity to have a wife as a positive thing for a number of reasons, due to their culture.  However, given their overall nature, I would say that the natural lusts of the flesh were enticing enough to them to convince them to go and even teach the words of the Lord to Ishmael and his family.  It kind of reminds me about how many more people will show up to a church activity, conference, temple session, etc, if you entice them with 'free' food.
However, once Laman and Lemuel had achieved their goal, had their 'girlfriends' as @zil wisely pointed out, what was stopping them from staying in Jerusalem and letting everyone else go back?  Hence the main events of the chapter took place.
Nephi was grieved.  He was grieved because he was 'sick and tired' of his complaining brothers.  "I mean, seriously, whats it going to take?  When will these guys get it?" were likely the types of questions going through his mind at that moment.
How many times do we ask ourselves that question about our children, or siblings, or friends, or co-workers?  I would assume, enough for us to adequately empathize with Nephi.  More importantly though, is how many times Heavenly Father must face a similar experience with us.  What will it take, when will each of us finally reach that moment where we decide to strive for exact obedience?  How many times does He have to tell us to have faith in His son, Jesus Christ, before we will realize what that really means for us.  How many times does he have to remind us to repent, or to do x/y/z thing and then reap the reward?  Nephi continued to strive to help his brothers, despite their clear wickedness and rebellion, because he loved them.  Just as Christs hand is stretched out still, all the day long, to those who will take hold, even after turning away time and time again.
In other words:  "I dare you!  I dare you to go back to Jerusalem! Do it and see what happens.  You have agency. If you want to go back, be my guest, but. . . if you go, you will die.  I'm just telling it like it is; this is what the Spirit told me to tell you."
I truly hope that I live sufficiently in tune with the Holy Spirit to recognize when the Lord deems it appropriate to call upon him to loosen my bands.  This applies equally to literal bands as well as with our trials.  I sincerely believe that if we are righteous, after we have done our part and are on the brink of the bitter end, assuming it be the Lords will, we can call upon Him to 'loosen our bands' and provide an escape alongside the trial, sometimes even a miraculous escape, just as he loosed the literal bands restraining Nephi.
Nephi, got right back up on his feet and started teaching them the truth they didn't want to hear once more.  Such resilience is awe inspiring and faith inducing.  Interestingly it reminds me of a popular lyrical refrain 'I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down!' 
Wow!  How many times will Nephi do this over the course of his journey?  What is equally interesting is how sincere Laman and Lemuel actually were in their repentance.  As Zil pointed out, these guys really desired all of the things that led them to act out as they did, but they also had at least enough of the light of Christ that they were willing to sincerely repent (at least for a time) when they recognized the seriousness of their atrocities.  But alas, how fleeting those feelings from the Spirit can be. No wonder we are extorted to write down our spiritual impressions and to refer back to them again and again.  In our day we have even more evil pulling us in all directions except the straight and narrow, when you think about it, Laman and Lemuel just wanted to go be lazy at home in peace and not have to work hard to do the right thing. That's about 50% of the USA these days, and then we have many, many other temptations on top of that!
We must always give thanks to God when we see His hand in our lives, both spiritually and temporally.  Failure to express gratitude is akin to actually being ungrateful. When you really think about it what do we have in this life that we actually deserve?  Nothing, that is the answer, nothing.  All belongs to the Lord; He giveth and He taketh away.  Even if we are seemingly left with nothing, we have our salvation in and through Him, and that is more than we could ever gain for ourselves.  If all is the Lord's, we ought to be grateful for whatever he sees fit to bestow unto us.

This chapter reads as though Nephi had never heard such a doctrine until this point in time.  Based on the phraseology, it seems that Lehi may not have been aware either, until after reading the brass plates.  Imagine hearing this information for the very first time, and knowing it is coming from a true source.  Imagine being Lehi, and reading from the scriptures for the first time, knowing you are reading the word of God as spoken/written by His prophets, and receiving the revelation about the gospel and the provision of a Savior.  What a glorious doctrine!  Salvation from death and from sin through the atonement.  Without this knowledge, I presume many of the Jews in that time may have simply speculated about how sacrifices work to cleanse sin and other similar questions, just as we speculate about various things in our time.  To Laman and Lemuel, as to many in our day, this concept seemed like a crazy fairy tale.  To Nephi he thirsted for more and 'was desirous also that [he] might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost'.
This chapter refers to the witness of the Holy Ghost many times (5 to be exact).  It is reflected, therefore, that the witness of the Holy Ghost is the paramount experience in ones testimony of Christ, of His gospel, and of all truth.  As Nephi reflects on his experience when writing this, he chose to mention the witness of the Holy Ghost with that frequency and stress its importance in his own conversion, and his own experiences.  It was by the Holy Ghost that he was able to see, hear, and know these truth's.  Without the witness of the Spirit, he may have seen, he may have heard, but he would not know.  Additionally, the Spirit would have opened his mind and understanding to see and hear more than the spoken or written word.  Christ, having this knowledge often said, 'he who hath ears to hear, let him hear'.  If the Holy Ghost can enable so much, is it any wonder that denying the direct witness of the Holy Ghost is the one truly unpardonable sin?  Even the very appearance of Christ could seem of little consequence without the revelation of the Spirit, therefore, Christ should manifest Himself, by the Spirit.  By His power, is revealed the truth of all things.
At the end of the day, the only way to know if something or someone is truly authorized of God is to receive the witness of the Holy Ghost for ones self.  If the Holy Ghost is the one who gives the authority in the first place, how could you know of the truthfulness of said authority by any other means?
I also found it interesting that we can tell from the text that Lehi had read the allegory of the olive tree, written by Zenos.  Nephi did not feel it necessary to expound further.  The Spirit would have prompted such, knowing that Jacob would later be called to present it on the record.  This could be seen as a temporal evidence of the fact that the Book of Mormon is not a fabrication.  Jacob did not refer back to this experience with His father when he presented the words of Zenos.  It would be unlikely and rare that an author of even 'realistic' fiction would not have referred the reader to reflect back on the previously foreshadowed moment in some way.  However, if Jacob were carving on the plates, I doubt he would think it necessary to make such a connection within the record itself.  He would not have seen it as a foreshadowing, but merely two people testifying of the same thing (two witnesses!).

I am an Eagle Scout and am grateful for the Scouting experiences and opportunities I have had.  However, once I experienced the bureaucratic side of scout leadership, I quickly determined that I did not like scouting anymore. I believe that the advantages and opportunities it provided could be easily achieved without everything they require.  I hope that the new program the Church implements will include teaching many of the same skills and doing many of the same activities, but with a reduced burden on the young men's leadership.
The programmer side of my brain came up with the concept of Open Source Scouts, where people could collaborate to create a similar meaningful program that would not entail any bureaucracy and any person or organization could do it!  I hope no one steals my idea!   Does my posting this count as a copyright?  Show me the royalties!  

I am an Eagle Scout and am grateful for the Scouting experiences and opportunities I have had.  However, once I experienced the bureaucratic side of scout leadership, I quickly determined that I did not like scouting anymore. I believe that the advantages and opportunities it provided could be easily achieved without everything they require.  I hope that the new program the Church implements will include teaching many of the same skills and doing many of the same activities, but with a reduced burden on the young men's leadership.
The programmer side of my brain came up with the concept of Open Source Scouts, where people could collaborate to create a similar meaningful program that would not entail any bureaucracy and any person or organization could do it!  I hope no one steals my idea!   Does my posting this count as a copyright?  Show me the royalties!