JOEL - In the scriptures you are referring to (Abr 3:18-22) the words "spirits" and "intellegences" are being used interchangeably to describe the same thing(spirits). The term "intellegence" has received two interpretations by scholars within the Church:
1. as the literal spirit children of Heavenly Parents and
2. as individual entities existing prior to their spirit birth.
Because latter-day revelation has not clarified the meaning of the term, a more precise interpretation is not possible at present.
Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said:
Some of our writers have endeavored to explain what an intelligence is, but to do so is futile, for we have never been given any insight into this matter beyond what the Lord has fragmentarily revealed. We know, however, that there is something called intelligence which always existed. It is the real eternal part of man, which was not created or made. This intelligence combined with the spirit constitutes a spiritual identity or individual.(Progress of Man p. 10, 1936).
Spencer W. Kimball wrote, "Our spirit matter was eternal and co-existent with God, but it was organized into spirit bodies by our Heavenly Father" (The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 5, 1969) From all I have read about the subject, I tend to believe we existed as intelligences before we became spirits.