Shortly after my 21st birthday, I went on hiatus from university, and lived in Uruguay for a year as a missionary. Because I had studied Spanish in school, I thought I knew Spanish. It turns out I didn’t; I could say little, understand less. After eight months, when I was assigned to a town in the interior of Uruguay where no one spoke English, I finally learned to speak, understand, and even think in Spanish. I had to, to survive.