Internet Was Down.... So this is her email from January 8th

Hello all!!
I just want to say how grateful I am that you continue to e-mail me every week. It truly gives me the strength to get through the week, knowing that you all are supporting me and that the Lord is looking out for you! Mama, I got your packages!!!!! Thank you SO much!!! Not gonna lie, I cried, hahaha! Mom, I have never cried so much in all my life, it is RIDICULOUS!!! Hahahahaha! But I am just so grateful to you. It means so much that you were willing to send me packages to the MTC and to Thailand even though its expensive, and that you were willing to take the time to think of things that I would miss from America. I didn't even realized I missed some of that stuff until I got it. And the Saltines, how funny that I told you I missed those last week, and you had already sent them to me. You know me too well! Anyway, thank you so much for the packages, and for being such a wonderful mom!
Thank you for sharing that experience about tithing with me. I am so grateful that you are both such incredible examples to me and to all the other kids, and that the Lord is always so willing to bless us when we have faith! Oh and Happy Anniversary!!! Seven years? Cing Laa?!? (Really?) That is so crazy! Time flies, and yet at the same time, you have just been my Mama forever! It is hard to even remember a time before I felt that way. So crazy!
I can't believe Luke's closed down!! That makes me so sad! I was really hoping to go back and work there when I get home. Darn it! And I feel really bad for all of the people that that puts out of work, especially people like Melissa who are trying to raise kids as a single mom and finish school!
K, so last week after I e-mailed we went with the Elders and tried to get on a bus. We got to the bus station at 7 and couldn't get on a bus til 10:30, so we made it to Roi-Et at about 3am. We got up at 6:30, sister Lish went to the training meeting while I hung out with the Roi-Et sisters (SO great) then we went and got back on a bus. The bus ride is only supposed to be about 4 hours...8 and a half hours later, we finally made it back to Khorat. On the way home, we got about 15 minutes outside of this place called Maha Sarakham, and the bus (which was literally crammed with people like sardines, chairs in the middle of the aisle craziness) broke down...in the middle of nowhere, rice paddy, farmland Thailand! HAHAHA! Yeah...so we piled off the bus, and waited for 45 minutes for another bus to come get us. Got crammed like sardines on that bus and I fell asleep only to wake up to Sister Lish telling me that because of traffic, we had turned of off the highway, and she was pretty sure that we were going to bypass Khorat and head straight to Bangkok...SERIOUSLY???? I don't think I have prayed that long consistantly in a long time! Hahaha! But we did end up making it back to Khorat about 11pm. And it made for a great adventure and a great story!
So I have been praying really hard this week for a greater knowledge of my purpose here as a missionary. And the past two days have been an incredible witness to me that I am exactly where God needs me, at the exact time He needs me, doing exactly what He needs me to do. That doesn't mean that it won't be hard, cuz this is still the hardest thing I have ever done, but I sat in a lesson with one of our little 16 year old punk kid invesstigators yesterday, and saw so much hurt in this kid. He has had a really rough life and made some really bad decisions and you can tell that it kills him. He hurts so deeply, but I can see his overwhelming desire to learn about Christ and the gospel. He has such a hunger for the truth. He literally came to us asking to be baptised, which is not going to be easy. He has a lot of things to overcome before He can be baptised, but to watch the power of the Atonement begin to work in this kid is the greatest miracle I have ever seen in my life. TO watch that hurt and know that through Christ he can be healed of that is so incredible. And I am priviledged not only to witness that, but to be the one helping him to learn these things that are quite literally changing his life. I am SO grateful for that opportunity and what a testimony builder that is to me!
Anyway, I have so much to say, but so little time!!!
I love you all SO much! And I am way excited to get letters from you! Thanks for writing them!!
Love ya! Jess