On August 1, 2026, Sister Theresa Ann Collins begins service as second counselor in the Primary general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bringing with her a lifelong conviction that children flourish when they understand themselves to be personally known and loved by God. Her appointment arrives at a moment when faith communities broadly are searching for ways to keep younger generations spiritually rooted — not through institutional authority alone, but through the deeper experience of felt relationship. Collins's guiding belief is ancient in its simplicity: that
Sister Collins Begins Primary Role With Message of Divine Love
Their Savior sees them—and He is always a safe place to turn.
Mark
What made you want to take on this role now, at this particular moment?
Mimi
I think it's because I've watched my own grandchildren grow up, and I've seen how much they need to know they matter—not just to their families, but to God. That's not something you can fake or rush.
Mark
But why is that message so urgent right now? Children have always needed to feel loved.
Mimi
True, but now they're growing up in a world where they're constantly being measured, ranked, compared. Social media, school, everything. They need to know there's a place where they're known completely and accepted as they are.
Mark
And you think the church is that place?
Mimi
I think it can be, if we help them understand it that way. If we stop making it about performance and start making it about relationship.
Mark
What does that look like in practice?
Mimi
It means listening to children. It means helping them see that their questions and doubts don't disqualify them from being loved. It means showing them that Christ was a refuge for me, and He can be for them too.
Mark
Do you worry you won't reach all of them?
Mimi
Of course. But I have to believe that if even one child understands they're truly seen, that changes everything.
The Pulse
- Religious institutions across the country are quietly wrestling with how to hold the attention and hearts of children growing up in a distracted, often disorienting world.
- Collins enters leadership not with a program or a campaign, but with a single urgent message — that Christ knows each child individually, not as a face in a crowd.
- Her own life, marked by seasons of difficulty, gave her firsthand experience of faith as refuge rather than obligation, and she intends to pass that experience forward.
- The Primary, responsible for the spiritual formation of the church's youngest members, becomes under her influence a space centered on personal connection over doctrinal performance.
- Her appointment signals that the organization is betting on intimacy — the felt sense of being known — as the most durable foundation for lifelong faith.
On August 1, 2026, Sister Theresa Ann Collins begins service as second counselor in the Primary general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bringing with her a lifelong conviction that children flourish when they understand themselves to be personally known and loved by God. Her appointment arrives at a moment when faith communities broadly are searching for ways to keep younger generations spiritually rooted — not through institutional authority alone, but through the deeper experience of felt relationship. Collins's guiding belief is ancient in its simplicity: that to know oneself seen and accepted by something greater is among the most stabilizing gifts a human life can receive.
Sister Theresa Ann Collins steps into her new role as second counselor in the Primary general presidency on August 1st with a conviction she has carried for years: that every child deserves to know they are seen, understood, and loved by a God who is not distant but deeply personal.
For Collins, this belief is not theological abstraction. It grew from her own experience — a desire that her children and grandchildren would understand themselves not as anonymous figures in a divine crowd, but as known individuals, with all their particular fears and hopes. Now, leading the church organization responsible for the spiritual formation of its youngest members, she wants to extend that assurance to every child in the faith.
Her message is simple but carries real weight. Christ, she says, sees them. He knows what they are thinking and feeling. And more than that, He is a refuge — a place to go when the world feels unsafe. That refuge, she has said, was essential to her during the harder seasons of her own life.
The appointment arrives as faith communities broadly grapple with how to keep young people connected to religious tradition. Collins's answer is not to make faith culturally relevant or entertaining, but to help children understand that their inner lives matter — that their struggles are witnessed, that they are not alone.
What she is ultimately offering, through her new leadership role, is something people search for across a lifetime: the experience of being truly known, and loved anyway. Her wager is that children who receive that understanding early will carry it as a foundation into everything that follows.
Sister Theresa A. Collins steps into her new role as second counselor in the Primary general presidency on August 1st, carrying with her a singular conviction: that every child needs to know they are seen and loved by a God who understands them completely.
For Collins, this isn't abstract theology. It's personal. She has spent years wanting her own children and grandchildren to grasp something she has come to believe with certainty—that they have a Heavenly Father who knows them not as distant figures in a crowd, but as individuals, with all their particular fears and hopes and questions. Now, stepping into leadership of the Primary, the church organization responsible for spiritual formation of children, she wants to extend that same assurance to every young person in the faith.
Her message is straightforward but carries weight. Christ, she says, sees them. Not in the way a distant observer might glance at a crowd. He knows what they're thinking. He understands what they're feeling. More than that, He is a place to go when the world feels unsafe or overwhelming—a refuge that was, for Collins herself, essential during difficult seasons of her own life.
This appointment comes at a moment when religious organizations across the country are grappling with how to keep young people connected to faith traditions. Collins's emphasis on personal connection—on the idea that spirituality is not about rules or distant authority, but about relationship with a presence that knows you—suggests a particular approach to that challenge. It's not about making faith seem cool or relevant in a cultural sense. It's about helping children understand that their inner lives matter, that their struggles are witnessed, that they are not alone.
What Collins is articulating, in her new leadership position, is something many people search for their entire lives: the experience of being truly known and accepted anyway. She's betting that children who understand this early—who grow up believing they are seen and loved by something larger than themselves—will carry that foundation forward into adulthood.
Notable Quotes
Their Savior sees them. He knows everything they're feeling and thinking. Christ is always a safe place to turn for solace and peace.— Sister Theresa A. Collins
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