Glassy Boy

My name is Kohl Glass (sometimes David Kohlhepp Glass, sometimes D. Kohl Glass, and sometimes just Glassy Boy) and I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Japan Okinawa Mission, under President Karl T. Pope between July 1994 and July 1996. I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah on July 6th. My MTC district was Field, Bacon, Holt, Hollibaugh, my companion Gill, and me. Lowe and Turner were also going to Okinawa with us at the same time but were in another district. We arrived in Okinawa on September 8th 1994. My bean area was Itoman and my trainer was Iwaasa, but only for a month and Iwaasa died and I got Chesnut. In the Itoman apto I lived with Matsuoka, Sones, Grant, Johnson (Johnny) and Tanner. On March 9th 1995 I transferred to Oyama to be comps with Solen in the apato with Norton and Cline. On May 30th 1995 I transferred up to Ishikawa to kill Gepford. Whitman replaced Gep and later Chesnut came in and we became a three man companionship for a month, then Harmon came in as Chesnut’s bean. Then Chesnut was replaced by Tokita and later Whitman went home, I got Iida and Koga replaced Harmon. On January 17th 1996 I transferred from Ishikawa to Naha Higashi and became comps with Krikava, in the apato with Quackenbush and Hodson. Then Quackenbush went home, Krikava transferred out, Naha Higashi went two-man, and Hodson and I become dodes. On March 28th Hodson and I closed the Naha Higashi apato and transferred to Naha Minami apato with Jenkins and Denning. Then Tanner replaced Jenkins and Hodson was replaced by my bean, Tokuno, and Denning was replaced by Harmon. On July 1st 1996 President Pope went home and the Japan Okinawa Mission became the Japan Fukuoka Mission. Then on July 18th I went home to Mesa, Arizona.

A week after getting home I met my wife Christa. She was one of those annoying little youth guides at the Mesa Temple that I always tried to avoid. I was there on a date and she approached us and asked us our names. She recognized my name because she was dating a friend of mine who was about to leave on his mission and had told Chris all about me. Because of my non-exemplary grades in high school I began attending Mesa Community College. Chris and I dated a bit off and on but ultimately felt like it wasn’t in the cards for us, so we decided to just be friends . . . though I was still very much in love with her. When she was 18 she was diagnosed with an acute form of IGA nephropathy, a kidney disease. Shortly after, her kidneys failed and she went on dialysis for three years. In 1998 I took a semester off from MCC and backpacked Europe for three months where I decided to study filmmaking at BYU. So I came home, graduated with an AA from MCC and in 1999 I got into BYU’s film program. In the summer of 2000 I got an internship working on a film in SLC which allowed me a month and a half to go back home to Mesa AZ. A week after my return Chris received her first kidney transplant from a deceased donor. Shortly after that we got back together and a month later I asked her to marry me. I put my studies at BYU on hold and I moved back to AZ for a year and a half while Chris finished at up at ASU. In 2002 we moved back to Provo so I could finish school. In 2003 I wrote and directed the “Award Winning” short film The Promethean which you can see here. In December of 2003 I graduated from BYU and in the summer of 2004 we moved back to Mesa so I could teach filmmaking classes at MCC. Teaching didn’t agree with me, or at least teaching at MCC didn’t agree with me, and I only taught for two semesters. I got a part time job as an early morning shelver at Barnes and Noble and worked on my projects the rest of the time. In 2005 Chris’s kidney disease attacked her new transplanted kidney and she had to go back on dialysis. In July of 2006 she received another kidney transplant, this time from my brother, Mitchell. In that same month I completed my short film Der Ostwind which played at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and is available for download on iTunes. Right now I’m just writing screenplays, networking, and trying to get projects off the ground full time with occasional freelance work on the side. It gives me time to ponder the good old dendo days and wonder what it all meant.


Other things of note: We don’t have kids yet, due to my wife’s health conditions, but hope to adopt someday soon. I haven’t kept up my go by any means . . . except if you count watching Japanese movies and anime. I teach the 5 and 6 year olds in Primary. The only senkyoshi I’ve kept in contact consistently over the years have been Tanner and Tokita, with periodic emails from Wahlquist. There are so many other missionaries we served with that I’ve wondered about and would love to talk to again.

I was chatting with Coon Shimai (now Domacilio Shimai) via Facebook the other day and she asked me if I still use Star Wars in scriptural analogies. Those of you who knew me on the mission, know that I was a pretty hard core Star Wars fan. Well . . . I felt so betrayed by the prequels that I have a lot of disdain and bitterness in my heart towards Star Wars now. I’m not a Star Wars fan any more . . . but fear not, I’m still plenty geeky.

Contact Info:
kohlglass@gmail.com
(480) 612-7058
Facebook Profile
www.eventidecreative.com