There’s nothing Sister Theresa A. Collins wants more than for her children and grandchildren to understand they have a loving Heavenly Father who knows them perfectly.
Now, as she prepares to serve in the Primary general presidency, her desire is that all His children will be blessed by that same truth.
“Their Savior sees them,” she said, adding that He knows everything they’re feeling and thinking. Christ is “always a safe place to turn for solace and peace. He was certainly that refuge for me.”
Parents and leaders have a “wonderful mantle of responsibility to teach children who they really are,” she continued. “As we help them become acquainted with their Savior, He will be a lifelong companion and guide.”
Sister Collins was sustained as second counselor in the new Primary general presidency during the Saturday afternoon session of the April 2026 general conference. She will begin her service on Aug. 1, along with Primary General President Rosemary K. Chibota and Sister Nina M. Garfield, first counselor.
“I am humbled to be asked to serve,” said Sister Collins. “Accepting such a large stewardship should be crippling, but from the moment I received the call I have felt nothing but peace, gratitude and joy. The fact that I feel this way is evidence that the Lord is with me and will remain with me in all He asks me to do. I’ve relied upon Him my entire life.”
Her husband, Brother Richard E. Collins, added that Sister Collins has a unique capacity to love, which has prepared her for this new assignment.
“Because she loves her Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, she knows how to powerfully invite others to come unto Christ. She models this beautifully in her life.”
‘I have a plan for your life’
Theresa Ann Knowles was born Aug. 18, 1961, in Long Beach, California, to Antoinette Erickson and Charles Ernest Knowles. She is the oldest of four children and was first raised in Texas and North Carolina before moving to Salt Lake City.
From her earliest memories she has felt the personal love of her Savior. She recounted how, the night before her baptism, she prayed and asked Heavenly Father if He wanted her to be baptized. The impression came strongly to her mind: “‘Not only do I want you to be baptized, but I need you to be baptized because I have a plan for your life, and it begins tomorrow in the waters of baptism.’
“I knew from that moment on, He was aware of me.”
During elementary and middle school, Sister Collins was the only member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the several schools she attended. She recalled: “I frequently experienced strong opposition to my faith, which sparked a burning desire to know for myself who I was, why I was here and what I believed.
“Supported by parents and leaders who helped instill in me a dependence on my Father in Heaven, coupled with my own sincere pursuit of truth, my testimony was solidified.”
It was during this period that Sister Collins developed a hunger for her scriptures and the habit of writing in a journal. Both provided a “critical and necessary connection to heaven” as her family went through difficult changes.
When she was 14, her parents divorced, and each took a different spiritual path than what they’d been living in their home. However, “the foundation they had provided to that point, along with my own personal patterns and experiences, ensured my faith was secure and strong enough to walk the path alone,” Sister Collins said. “Through many simple, sacred experiences, I continued a personal relationship with God.”
Sister Collins is also thankful for the ward families that nurtured her and her siblings along the gospel path.
“Because of them, church was a warm, welcoming place where we felt the Spirit envelop us and where we could be among people who fostered love and belonging,” she said. “We each feel a tremendous debt of gratitude for Primary and youth leaders, bishops and members who nurtured, included, ministered and modeled what covenant-keeping joy looked like.”
Today, Sister Collins and all her siblings have married in the temple and are raising families in the gospel. “God is aware of every single one of His children, whatever age they are,” she said.
Similar backgrounds, similar goals
After high school, Sister Collins began attending Utah State University in Logan, Utah, where she studied special education.
It was there she met Richard E. Collins, who served in the Netherlands Amsterdam Mission from 1979 to 1981 and who studied finance and business before making a career as a financial planner.
Three months after Brother Collins returned home from his mission, he met Sister Collins through a former mission companion who was dating Sister Collins’ roommate. While the couple initially resisted their friends’ attempts to set them up, they eventually agreed to a blind date, and Brother Collins immediately recognized Sister Collins’ great faith and love for the Lord.
They quickly discovered they were well suited to each other in a variety of ways. Besides a shared love of music, Brother Collins is also the oldest, having moved back to Utah after his parents divorced and also experienced the gift of “ordinary people” who were put in his path to bless him.
“With similar backgrounds and life goals,” said Brother Collins, “we easily moved in lockstep together. Sister Collins and I committed to keep the Lord and each other first, and we were eager to begin a family together.”
The couple married March 18, 1982, in the Logan Utah Temple. They are the parents of four children and have 16 grandchildren.
“My decision to marry a young man who loved His Father in Heaven as much as I did was the start of a sacred journey,” said Sister Collins. “Everything I cherish most has come as a result of the decision that began in the house of the Lord.
“The power that has come from keeping our covenants together has sustained and lifted us through all the trials mortal life can pour out.”
She continued, “Our consistent striving to hear and heed the voice of our Savior, to trust Him and move forward in faith have brought us undeniable peace, comfort, direction and remarkable strength.”
Miracles and mission service
Brother Collins said that throughout their marriage, he and Sister Collins have made it a priority to always accept callings and prepare to serve a senior mission together. “We have been richly blessed because of that.”
At the time of her call to the Primary general presidency, Sister Collins was serving “among our youngest disciples” as a Nursery leader as well as temple ordinance worker and with her husband as a stake mission preparation instructor.
The Collinses served together when Brother Collins was called as a young single adult ward bishop from 2013 to 2016, and again as service missionaries in the Salt Lake Inner City Mission from 2016 to 2019 among the members of the Parkview Ward in the Salt Lake City Utah Tongan Stake.
Then, from 2021 to 2024, they served as mission leaders of the Arkansas Bentonville Mission.
Brother Collins credits previous mission leaders with laying the foundations for great success through their Christlike service.
“I think the greatest miracle we witnessed,” he said, “was to see the changes in our missionaries as they learned to invite and help others come unto Christ. As they did so they received the power to keep their own covenants. Assisting the Savior in His great gathering work strengthens our own faith and deepens our resolve to follow Him.”
“Our consistent striving to hear and heed the voice of our Savior, to trust Him and move forward in faith have brought us undeniable peace, comfort, direction and remarkable strength.”
— Sister Theresa A. Collins
Sister Collins said part of their responsibility as mission leaders was to nurture lifelong disciples, not simply train missionaries for their specific time of service. She and Brother Collins took their responsibility seriously and saw powerful and lasting changes in their missionaries.
“They are literal partners with their Father in Heaven and His Son,” Sister Collins said. “And when they do their best to keep their covenants, they’re given power and capacity far beyond what they could ever have accomplished by themselves.”
Serving however God asks
The Collinses’ lives have not been without challenges, but they’ve also seen miracles.
“My testimony,” said Sister Collins, “echoes that of President [Russell M.] Nelson: that a focus on Christ gives us the ability to bear our individual burdens with ease and even more miraculously with joy, regardless of our circumstances.”
The greatest illustration of this principle came when Sister Collins was afflicted with a rare and debilitating neuromuscular disease in her 40s. The diagnosis put in jeopardy the Collinses’ dreams of serving as senior missionaries in subsequent years; but as a family, they learned an even deeper dependence on their Savior while He tutored them to trust in the impossible promise of healing — though it would take 14 years to be fulfilled.
Sister Collins said it wasn’t lost on her or Brother Collins that their missionary service wouldn’t have been possible without her healing. While she doesn’t believe God gives blessings simply to get something in return, her gratitude was such that she immediately wanted to serve as a missionary.
“I am so grateful to have my full capacity so that I can serve in whatever way He asks us to,” Sister Collins said. “Nothing brings me greater joy than to be able to serve my Savior and His children.”
About Sister Theresa A. Collins
Family: Theresa Ann Knowles Collins was born Aug. 18, 1961, in Long Beach, California, to Charles Ernest Knowles and Antoinette Erickson, and is the oldest of four children. She was raised in Texas, North Carolina and Salt Lake City. She married Richard E. Collins on March 18, 1982, in the Logan Utah Temple. They are the parents of four children.
Education: She studied special education at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
Church service: At the time of her call, Sister Collins was serving as a Nursery leader, temple ordinance worker and, with her husband, stake mission preparation instructor. Previous callings include stake Young Women presidency counselor, ward Relief Society president, ward Young Women president and Primary teacher. She and Brother Collins served as mission leaders of the Arkansas Bentonville Mission from 2021 to 2024.
