Wendell Jeffson, son of imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, escaped the fundamentalist sect at age 18 and subsequently joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving a full-time mission, according to a YouTube interview on the Cults to Consciousness channel that has drawn 37,000 views in 16 hours.

Jeffson's decision to remain within Mormonism — though in its mainstream form rather than his father's breakaway polygamous sect — represents an unusual path among those who leave fundamentalist groups. Most FLDS escapees reject all forms of Mormonism entirely.

Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence for sexual assault of children. The FLDS, or Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is a polygamous sect not affiliated with the mainstream LDS Church, which abandoned plural marriage in 1890.