Joseph Smith: an awesome story teller or a Prophet?

I came to a discovery last night about Nephi. I came to realize he's one that has lots of faith, but not the type that probably a lot of people think.

I'm specifically referring to how he asks the Lord where ore can be found to molten the tools he needs to make the boat.

I remember growing up hearing people say that he had such awesome faith that he didn't even ask the Lord how to make the tools, he just asks "how do I find the materials to make the boat?" which sounds like pretty awesome faith. To not even ask how to make the tools, but to ask where's the materials to make the boat...it's just an awesome amount of faith.

Let's take a closer look at Nephi, and why he doesn't need to ask how to make the tools.

I believe he was a type of metal smith. I believe this because of 2 things.

1 - This should be the most obvious to anyone...what store now days can you find a steel (archery or hunting) bow? Ok, Why would Joseph Smith include this easily overglossed detail like someone carrying around a steel bow, unless a real person that worked with metals wrote about his steel bow? This detail doesn't do anything for Nephi later on in the story of their journey through the wilderness, other than play a part in a faith building trial.

2 - Nephi finds a drunk Laban and pulls out his sword. Then Nephi takes the time, in the dark (because remember he crept into the city after it was dark), to admire Laban's sword...and not only admire it, but he makes the effort of writing about it on the plates, which aparently is not an easy task. So it would appear Laban's sword meant something to him, or at least impressed him.

9 And I beheld his sword, and I drew it forth from the sheath thereof; and the hilt thereof was of pure gold, and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine, and I saw that the blade thereof was of the most precious steel.

So, it would also appear - from this instance - that his passion for temporal things was metal, else why would Nephi make the effort to tell all that would read plates about his fascination with Laban's sword...he was taken back at how beautiful the sword was, it was probably something he would have loved to have made himself.

Not to mention all the swords he forged after his family landed in the America's and they seperated.

So, back to this: an amazing show of faith on Nephi's part; it's really not so amazing after all that he asked where to find the ore...he just didn't know where to look. But he did display amazing faith in asking how to build the boat, he built bows, swords and metal things, not boats.