Susan H. Porter

Primary General President

“One thing that’s been impressed on our mind over the past year is, how can we strengthen children spiritually?” said Sister Susan H. Porter. “When we talk about strengthening the faith of the rising generation, that has to start in Primary.”

Sister Porter sees the blessings that come to baptized children as they participate as covenant members of the Church.

“It’s often in doing and serving that our testimonies are increased,” she explained. “Children can learn to seek inspiration from heaven.”

Before her call as Primary General President, Sister Porter had served as First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency for a year.

She said that many children could not participate in Primary during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also saw, and knows, the challenges single women faced. Her husband, Elder Bruce D. Porter of the Seventy, passed away in 2016.

“There were many Sundays when I did not have the sacrament,” she said.

As she has shared her experiences, other women have told her, “The fact that you are serving in the Church gives me a better vision that the Church needs me too.”

Susan Elizabeth Holland Porter was born July 31, 1955, in Ponca City, Oklahoma, USA, to Hans J. and Charlene Coleman Holland and was raised in New York, USA.

She married Elder Porter on February 2, 1977, in the Washington D.C. Temple. They raised their four children in the eastern United States, Germany, and Utah and fulfilled Church assignments in the Europe East Area.

Sister Porter graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Brigham Young University. She has worked as a lab assistant for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as a math teacher. She has also volunteered with various community and civic organizations.

Sister Porter has served on the Relief Society general advisory council, and her other previous callings include stake Relief Society presidency counselor, ward Relief Society and Young Women president, Gospel Doctrine teacher, and Primary music leader.