Thou, even thou,
art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all
their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and
all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of
heaven worshippeth thee.
Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him
forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with
him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the
Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his
seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
Well, brother, it's like this. The testimony when my son was born, began
three years before, when I was single.
I had promised the Lord that my first child, if it was a boy, in honor of the
prophet that He had sent, I was going to name him, "William Marrion." And thus
it happened that I got married, and my first born was a boy.
I went to the hospital to get him, and they did not want to give him to me
until he was registered. Then I told them that I wasn't going to take my son
until they give him that name of "William Marrion Zayas."
And they told me that they were not going to give him that name, because in
this country, one cannot give two foreign names at the same time, but that I
could name him "William" or "Marrion," but with a Spanish second name.
Then I told them, "I am not going to take him from the hospital. He is going
to have to live here, because I am not going to take him until you give him that
name."
And I told them, "Well, if you are not going to give it to him, I will leave
him here." And I left.
Then they told me, "No! Stop! Go speak with the Director of the Civil
Registry, and see if he will permit it. He is the only one who can authorize
you; we cannot do anything here at the hospital."
Then I told them, "I will go speak with him."
They told me, "You don't only have to go speak with him, but you have to do
it in writing."
Then I made a writing for him, and in that writing I said, "I greet you with
the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Director of the Civil Registry, I
earnestly ask you to permit me to name my son, "William Marrion Zayas." And then
I wrote, "I greet you sincerely in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
And I took the note to him. And when I took him the note, I did not find the
director, because the director was in the interior of the province, making
documents for the elections. And they told me to come tomorrow, because
tomorrow, in all probability, he would be there. “And when you see a 4x4 truck
parked there, it means that he is here.”
Then I returned the next day. My son remained in the hospital one more day.
And on the next day, I saw the 4x4 truck, so I entered the Civil Registry. I
asked a man in a suit if the Director of the Civil Registry was there. And he
told me, "No, he is not here; he just left."
And I told him, “Well, I am going to wait, because they told me that when
that truck was parked there that he was going to be here, and was going to
attend me, because I have a note to deliver to him, because I have to take my
son from the hospital, and he has been there already for several days, and I
have to take him home. And I need to speak with him."
Then I turned to go; when I was going out, he said to me, "Come in, I will
attend to you now."
Then I went to his office and he said to me, "What is your problem?"
I told him, "The problem is that they do not want me to name my son with the
name that is written there: the name of "William Marrion Zayas."
Then he read the note, and when he read, he saw that the note was a Christian
note, and he realized that I was a Christian. When he read the note he told me,
"But why don't they allow you to name him this, if this name is Christian?" He
said, "This name is Biblical."
Then I was surprised, because he told me, "This name is Biblical." That name
is not in the Bible, but I said, “In all probability, after two thousand years,
people are finally going to begin to realize that the name is Biblical, and that
the name is the name of a prophet that had the Spirit and the power of Elijah,
like John the Baptist.” And I began to weep and almost stepped out to cry. Then
he signed and sealed it for me and told me, "Go and put that name on your son
and take him home from the hospital."
I went with that note to those people who did not allow me to take my son
home and did not permit me to name him that name. And well, I threw the note on
the table and told them, "Well, here you have what you asked me for, and now I
want to take my son, and I want you to name him exactly what it says on that
note; don't mistake a single letter, "William" with a double "ll," and "Marrion"
with a double "rr," and don't mistake anything, because that is the name of the
prophet of God," I told them.
Then they put it that way on the document. They gave me the document, and I
took my son home from the hospital.
Brother Alberto Zayas, Argentina