Nephi pours out his soul, declaring his agony at finding his nation so completely changed. He suggests that he wishes that he could have lived in different times, when everything was better. It is not uncommon that humankind have fond memories of times when things were good, or at least we believe they were. Thus, this Nephi wishes that he were with the first Nephi and his family as they came to the New World from Jerusalem. This, despite the intrafamilial conflicts that characterized those early days, and the attempted fratricide that lead to the division between the Nephites and Lamanites.
Nephi, as with most of us, see only the things we wish to see in the past.