The reference to God’s “little wrath” describes the Assyrian captivity, Isaiah’s original referent, rather than Yahweh’s attitude toward the Nephites. Still, those in Bountiful might have related to this statement in remembering the great wickedness that had dissolved their government so recently. Their nation’s recent wickedness and the destructions accompanying Jesus’s death could certainly be seen as God’s “wrath.”
The important part of this verse is the change: Yahweh was briefly hidden but returns, was briefly wrathful but is now kind. The power of the imagery lies in this contrast.