Day of the Cookies

First I would like to say thank you to my amazing sister, Chantelle: thanks buddy!! She sent cookies in a jar to Japan with the CLBI team. I've been watching that jar for a month, with the flour and sugar and chocolate chips. It sat on top of my TV just tantalizing me. It's crazy how humid it is here; I could see the humidity sinking the flour and sugar deeper and deeper into the jar week by week. Today when I made them, I had to pry the contents out with a chopstick.
Mixing the cookies was another challenge; my apartment does not come equipped with a big spoon. So I tried mixing them with a rice scooper, then a teaspoon, a wooden spoon, and then finally my hand. Then to bake them. Let me explain my oven to you; it's 3-in-1, with a range, grill and oven all in one (it's about the size of a microwave). Once I figured out which buttons to press in their right order, and converted the temperature (properly the second time after I wondered why my cookies weren't baking), I was set. I turned on some music real loud (I may or may not have sung and danced by myself), ate dough, and made cookies. (Yes Chantelle I got more than one sheet of cookies haha.) Then I put the cookies into ziplock bags provided by the bank (when I signed up for an account). Good old Japanese gift-giving custom...who knew the bank would one day help me bake cookies.
All in all a good day, after talking to my parents for an hour, another friend for three, getting a package from Germany, listening to cd's burnt by friends, making cookies and hanging out with Jesus.
And from it all I've come to a conclusion:
I think it's crazy how people that are living 15 hours and an ocean apart can still affect each other. I spent my day physically alone, but it was like I was almost hanging out at home (except for the hour I spent in a rice field this afternoon). It's crazy how relationships can almost get stronger when you're not together, how hearts get closer the farther you are apart. It's crazy how when you give your fears to God (like losing all your friends when you're in Japan for a year), he'll reassure you and show you you have nothing to be afraid of. And it's crazy how milk tastes better when you drink it out of the carton.