Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were reading the scriptures when one verse, as they later wrote, “caused us to marvel, for it was given unto us of the Spirit.
“And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings” (D&C 76:19; emphasis added). What followed was the vision of the three degrees of glory.
President Joseph F. Smith recorded: “On the third of October, in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen, I sat in my room pondering over the scriptures;
“And reflecting upon the great atoning sacrifice that was made by the Son of God… .
“As I pondered over these things which are written, the eyes of my understanding were opened” (D&C 138:1–2, 11; emphasis added). President Smith then had a great vision of the spirit world and Christ’s visit to it.
These accounts teach an important lesson concerning the value of quiet study and meditation and how one comes to know the mysteries of God. In Moroni 10:3–5 Moroni uses the word ponder as one of the steps in acquiring a testimony of the Book of Mormon.