Zach Bowers, 18, left, and his half-brother Isaiah, 17, with their older brother Caleb’s fiancee, Paige Siler, and the family dog. The young men have left their nearby polygamist compound in Arizona. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
For two brothers, young refugees from a breakaway polygamist sect of the Mormon Church, new freedoms pose challenges.
Isaiah, left, and Zach Bowers, former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, live with a Mormon foster family in St. George, Utah. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Caleb Bowers, 23, center, with his fiancee, Paige Siler, also lives with the Hofhines family after leaving the polygamist sect that he and his brothers grew up in. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Zach and Isaiah Bowers, from left, head out with their older brother Caleb’s fiance, Paige Siler, for some skateboarding in St. George, Utah. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Zach Bowers passes St. George’s main Mormon temple, at left. After being raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect of the church in Arizona, he shies away from organized religion. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Isaiah and Zach Bowers, 18, from left, head for a hill on their skateboards in their St. George neighborhood. They are gradually adapting to their new lives with a mainstream Mormon foster family. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
“I didn’t even know what the president was,” Zach Bowers says of his time on the fundamentalist compound. “I knew there was somebody over the United States, but I didn’t know they called it the president.” (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Zach, left, and Isaiah Bowers, right, play a casual game of basketball. On their fundamentalist compound, they always wore long-sleeved shirts -- and long underwear. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)