Helaman 10

2 And it came to pass that Nephi went his way towards his own house, pondering upon the things which the Lord had shown unto him.

To ponder is to give thorough or deep consideration to a subject. It means to meditate upon the meaning of something. We don't ponder enough. In our hurry-up world, ideas brush past our minds like a stiff wind through tall grass. If we ponder the meaning of things, God can open our minds to truth. In Nephi's case, the following happened:

3 And it came to pass as he was thus pondering—being much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites, their secret works of darkness, and their murderings, and their plunderings, and all manner of iniquities—and it came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him

God will speak to our souls in moments of quiet contemplation.

Nephi performed a great miracle. After that the people argued about how he did it and what it meant, and in the end they all wandered off to their own lives "leaving Nephi alone, as he was standing in the midst of them." (v. 1) His heart was weighed down with sadness. I picture him feeling defeated as I often have. But in the midst of his pondering and sadness, God spoke to him and commissioned him to do more. Nephi did what we should do -- he went directly to work to fulfill the commandment of God.

12 And behold, now it came to pass that when the Lord had spoken these words unto Nephi, he did stop and did not go unto his own house, but did return unto the multitudes who were scattered about upon the face of the land, and began to declare unto them the word of the Lord which had been spoken unto him