Textual: Verses 33-36 are the foundation for the next topic that Mormon will discuss, a topic that he picks up again in 3 Nephi 29:1 (although there was no intervening chapter break in Mormon’s plate text). Verse 37 tells us that at this point there was a break in Mormon’s physical process of writing on these plates. The division rather clearly took place between our verses 35 and 36. Mormon had begun telling about the future of the three Nephites, and then moved to his new topic on the last days. Nevertheless, as he continued his pondering during the break he took from writing, it was a topic related to the three Nephites that occupied his mind and his prayers. Therefore when he returns he has new information, and wants to share that information. This becomes the text from here to the end of this chapter. In the next chapter of our current edition, Mormon returns to his discussion of the end times.
Of even more interest than the question and answer is the process. Here is an apostle who has personally met the three Nephites, but has a question about them to which there is no answer in the texts before him. He receives his answer in the same way that we must receive our answers to important questions. He took the question to the Lord, and the Lord gave him the answer. There are times when all of the records of the Nephites did not provide the needed information. There are times for us when all the libraries of man will not hold the specific information we need. There was for Mormon another recourse, and that same recourse is available to us.