Hi, my name is Bryson Ensign. I am a physician, psychiatrist, certified life coach, and a former missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m deeply passionate about the mental and emotional well-being of pre-missionaries, current missionaries and returned missionaries. I created Latter Day Missionaries to be a space for support, growth, and healing for missionaries around the globe.
Not too long ago, I was on a mission myself. While it was amazing, it wasn’t easy. My mission stretched me in the most unexpected ways—sometimes uncomfortably so.
One of my mission leaders described it well: we went “days without water and years without cheese.”
I faced countless challenges: learning a new language, adapting to a different culture, and managing the anxiety that I had even before my mission.
I saw other missionaries going through similar struggles, dealing with stress, homesickness, and mental health hurdles that weren’t easy to talk about or overcome.
Yet, despite the challenges, my mission transformed me in ways I could never have imagined.
After my mission, I returned home to pursue my education at Brigham Young University, where I graduated in Genetics & Biotechnology. I became fascinated with what makes us tick—our biology, psychology, and everything in between. This path led me to medical school at the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine and currently I’m completing additional training as a psychiatrist.
The idea for Latter Day Missionaries came to me during my third year of medical school. On a psychiatry rotation at Utah State University, I had the chance to work with many returned missionaries and individuals preparing for missions.
Witnessing the mental health challenges they faced showed me just how vital it is to have resources specifically for missionaries. I could see a clear need, but I was juggling hospital rotations and my studies, so I couldn’t act on it right away. But every few months my mind would wander back to wondering how to help missionaries with their mental health.
Fast forward a few years into my residency. I was working 60-80 hours a week and had a young family, so life was intense and busy. Sleep was vitally important to me. But one night, I woke up at 3 AM with the overwhelming thought: the missionaries need your help! I tried to go back to sleep, but the thought kept coming–the Missionaries need your help! I couldn’t sleep, so I got up and sat at the kitchen table in the dark. For the next three hours, ideas flooded my mind in what felt like a flood of revelation.
It became clear: I needed to create mental health resources for missionaries. I sketched out ideas for topics like stress management, homesickness, emotional resilience and learning to handle rejection. Thus The Mental Health Training Center was born. I thought about ways to support missionaries before, during, and after their missions. I even thought of a name—Latter Day Missionaries, not Latter Day Missionary—because I wanted to emphasize that mental health is something we can strengthen together, creating a culture of positive support and growth.
As the sun started peeking through the window, I looked at the clock—6 AM already, just in time for me to head to work. In those early morning hours, Latter Day Missionaries was born.
I wish I could say this kind of inspiration struck every day, but it doesn’t work that way, at least for me. I do believe God gave me the spark to get started, but it was up to me to build something meaningful out of it. Over the next year, I poured all my spare time into creating Latter Day Missionaries, piece by piece, focusing on making practical, life-changing resources for missionaries.
Today, Latter Day Missionaries offers resources for everyone: those preparing for missions, currently serving missionaries, and returned missionaries. We also have resources for family members and mission leaders, for young proselyting missionaries, senior missionaries, and anyone else who wants to support God’s work.
It’s my privilege to invite you into the Latter Day Missionaries community. Our mission is to strengthen your mind so that you can serve God with all of yours.
We are in the business of building psychologically healthy people, line upon line, precept upon precept.
Together, we can help God’s missionaries thrive. Welcome to Latter Day Missionaries!