If you remember in the last verse Néphi talks about how he can't and won't make a full account of all the things that his father heard, saw, and said, but that he will record some. I love moments like this when you can almost imagine Néphi engraving this and making clarifications as he goes. He opens by saying that he is going to make a record of his life but then spends the rest of the verse talking about how he is going to finish the abridgment of his father's life first. It is my impression, which may or may not be accurate, that Néphi was commanded by his father to make this record. The way he talks about it seems to me like he has a duty to do and that duty has prompted a desire to make his own record of his own life.
The only other thing about this verse that really struck me is that Néphi had to make these plates by himself...by hand. That is intense! I really think this is more than just something Néphi wants to do. I believe that is confirmed later and that he talks about these things being recorded as a commandment from God. I wonder if he knew that at this point though. Something tells me he started before he knew the full importance of the work. We could probably learn from that.
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