Why This Latter-day Saint Woman Donated Her Kidney to a Man She Met While Hiking the Y

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By Kaitlyn Bancroft, Church News

Krissy Miller doesn’t usually kneel in prayer before hiking the Y, but that day in September 2023, something compelled her to stop before going to the trail.

Kneeling in her living room, the Latter-day Saint from Provo, Utah, asked Heavenly Father to guide her in making a decision about becoming a kidney donor. The idea had been on Miller’s heart and mind for almost a year by then, but she felt uncertain about the health risks and about the possibility that her Type 1 diabetic husband, Chris, could need her kidney someday.

But that day, on the Hike the Y Trail — a steep, 2.2-mile round trip hike to Brigham Young University’s iconic mountainside block “Y” — Miller met a man named Shiller Joseph. He was on the kidney transplant waiting list, he told her. And he was glad to be living in Utah because the state’s waiting list is so much shorter than the list in Florida, his home state.

Miller said she felt “electricity” go through her at Joseph’s words. “I don’t usually get answers to prayer that directly, but it was unmistakable.”

As Miller continued talking with Joseph and his wife, Rhona, she could tell they were people of faith. So she shared with them that they’d answered her prayer — and asked to stay in touch on the chance that she could donate her kidney to Shiller Joseph.

That day marked the beginning of Miller and Joseph’s friendship. The road ahead wasn’t always smooth as they prayed and hoped they’d be a match as donor and recipient, but they leaned on each other, their families and their shared faith in Jesus Christ.

Thirteen months and one transplant later, Miller’s kidney is giving Joseph a new lease on life.

“This is a modern-day miracle,” Joseph said, adding, “[This] is an example of true love, just like Jesus did for us. Although we fall [short] in our faith, stay strong, because we may not understand our journey. But God does.”

A Miraculous Meeting

Miller, who belongs to the Sunset 13th Ward of the Provo Utah Sunset Stake, said the idea of kidney donation first crossed her mind in October 2022, when she saw a Facebook post from someone whose brother-in-law needed a kidney transplant.

As she looked at pictures of this man’s “beautiful” family, all she could think about was how devastating it would be to raise her four children without her husband, Chris. She didn’t know if she could help this specific man, but she wanted to know if she could help someone have more time with their loved ones.

Inspired, Miller began exploring the possibility of kidney donation with her doctors. But she learned that in order to be an eligible donor, she would need to lower her blood sugar and lose some weight.

So Miller put the idea of kidney donation on the back burner and instead focused on getting healthier. Between December 2022 and September 2023, she began hiking the Y trail at least three times a week, changed her diet and lost almost 40 pounds.

By August 2023, Miller was again having serious thoughts about donating a kidney. Only weeks later, she saw Joseph on the Y trail and couldn’t shake the feeling that she should talk to him.

Joseph was also on the trail that day as part of his efforts to become healthier. A pastor and former paramedic from Florida, he moved to Heber, Utah, in 2020 with his wife, Rhona, and their three children to start a ministry.

But around six months later, Joseph’s health began flagging, and he soon learned that his lupus — a chronic autoimmune disease — was causing his kidney function to drop dangerously low. By spring 2021, he was on dialysis and so sick he was unable to work or help care for his children, one of whom has special needs.

Those months were a dark time for Joseph. Coming to Utah had already taken a lot of faith, but instead of building the ministry he felt God had called him to, he was sick in a dialysis chair while his wife carried the entire burden of caring for their family. He was tired and discouraged, and he wondered what purpose God had for him if not helping others.

But Joseph’s family pushed him to improve his health even as he waited for a kidney. They moved to Provo, where he continued his dialysis treatments, and it was at his wife’s suggestion that they were hiking the Y the day they met Miller.

As they spoke with Miller, Joseph was “speechless” that she would offer her kidney to a total stranger. They would need tests to determine their donation compatibility, but they were both O+ blood types, which was a step in the right direction.

“[I was] thinking to myself, ‘This is surreal. This woman has to be an angel or something,’” Joseph said.

Both Miller and Joseph left the trail that day bolstered by the knowledge that Heavenly Father was aware of them. Even if the kidney transplant didn’t work out, Joseph felt like God was saying, “‘I’ve always been here. I’m not going to give you the answer you want. I’m going to give you the answer you need.’”

Walking by Faith

The next step for Miller and Joseph was determining if they could be a donor match. Months of testing followed — including some periods where it seemed that Miller would again be ineligible for kidney donation.

During that time, they clung to their faith that Heavenly Father knew what He was doing. Miller recalled a time she prayed in the temple to accept God’s will if she was ultimately unable to give Joseph her kidney.

“Through all this, I just felt the faith to go forward,” she said.

Joseph, too, trusted God with what he couldn’t control while focusing on what he could. Meeting Miller gave him new drive, he said, and he doubled down on his efforts to eat better and exercise more.

That step-by-step, walk-by-faith mentality finally led them to the day in March 2024 when they got the good news they’d been hoping for: Miller’s kidney was a match for Joseph. The transplant surgery was approved.

“We were told that we were not just a match, but a very good, solid match, [almost like] siblings,” Miller said, adding, “I felt like that was another faith-building confirmation that we are all God’s children. All of us, we’re brothers and sisters.”

Joseph said the news put him at a loss for words. To receive any kidney would be a gift, he said, but it was especially humbling to receive a kidney from someone he knows — someone he loves as a sister and friend.

Getting the news was also spiritual confirmation to Joseph that God always had a plan for him.

“Other than watching my kids being born and marrying my wife, I don’t think I have ever [had] a better moment,” he said.

‘Greater Love Hath No Man Than This’

Miller and Joseph underwent successful surgeries on April 2, 2024, at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah. Recovery was rough for Joseph, with an infection putting him in the Intensive Care Unit for a week; but now, over six months post-op, his life has “changed for the better.”

Miller, too, is doing well. Physically she’s as strong as ever, she said, but mentally and spiritually, she feels changed.

“[God] wasn’t dependent on me to give Shiller a kidney,” she said. “I feel like He was giving me an opportunity to love and serve, and if I wasn’t listening, then that opportunity might have gone to someone else … The Lord would have taken care of Shiller either way, but because this time I listened… my faith and testimony have grown so much.”

Joseph is also deeply grateful to God for the miracle of meeting Miller and receiving a kidney. He reflected on how though people look different on the outside, they’re the same on the inside. The act of love is “not a fairy tale,” he said, and Miller shows that love.

He also referenced John 15:13, where Jesus tells His disciples, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

“Something could’ve happened on that surgery table, but she went to that table with a smile on her face,” Joseph said of Miller, adding, “That’s love. … God is real, and I’m glad He used me.”

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