Although the story recited in these verses is integral to the narrative of the Book of Mormon, it contains little of doctrinal importance. Two matters, however, are worthy of note.
First, the people who left Zarahemla and returned to the land of Nephi-Lehi continued the system of temple worship that has always been central to the gospel plan (verse 17).
Contrary to many traditional Bible commentaries which hold that ancient Israel had only one temple and that in Jerusalem, we find indications in the Book of Mormon that the scattered remnants of Israel may all have maintained the same system of worship known in Palestine, including the use of temples.
After arriving in the New World the Lehite colony commenced the building of a temple as soon as their situation allowed it (see 2 Nephi 5:16).
This temple was abandoned when Mosiah, the grandfather of the present Mosiah, led his people into the land to the north, the land of Zarahemla. Here they again built a temple, making it once more the focal point of their system of worship (Mosiah 2:1).
In the record of when Ammon and his companions located those who had left Zarahemia to return to the land of Nephi-Lehi, again we find the-temple as the center of the religious system.
Whether this was the original Nephite temple or a new temple they had built, we are not told. In either case, temples are at the heart of worship among the Lord’s people throughout the entirety of the Book of Mormon.