Four years ago, polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in jail for sexually assaulting underage girls he considered his wives.

Despite this, he still appears to be running the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS cult, and instructing his flock with letters and phone calls from behind bars.

Women and girls wearing prairie dresses can still be seen around town, pumping gas and driving tractors. They often run and hide when they see outsiders. Men drive trucks with windows tinted so dark you cannot tell who is inside.

Still there are signs that the community he once led on the border between Utah and Arizona is now divided - between those who remain loyal to Jeffs and those who wish to embrace the outside world.

The town of Hildale, which located in Utah, along with sister city Colorado City in Arizona, has seen some of its residents welcome modern society.

An elementary school, closed for 13 years, has reopened. As well, a mammoth, two-story edifice, encircled by a 15-foot wall of special white cement compound that members built for Jeffs, is being converted into a bed and breakfast.

Jeffs' former bodyguard, Willie Jessop, who for years defended the FLDS, is converting the former compound, which has dozens of rooms with turquoise carpets, just as Jeffs liked.

In defiance of some of Jeffs' rules, he flies the American flag, keeps the gate open and has torn down part of the wall - all meant as clear signals that there is life after Jeffs.

Jessop left the cult in 2011.

Homes in the community which used to be controlled by a FLDS trust have been in the hands of government officials since 2005.

Around the corner from Jeffs former compound stand abandoned houses where the state recently evicted Jeffs followers who refused to pay $100-a-month occupancy fees.

About 24 families are now receiving deeds to their homes- a first for a community where nearly all the houses have belonged to sect leaders since 1942.

And more changes lie ahead. The public school plans to put a gymnasium in a giant building once used by the sect as a storehouse.

School officials want to field high school volleyball and basketball teams, with the hope that sports will convince more families to send their children to school.

More evictions of FLDS houses and businesses are scheduled and the new board may begin redistributing houses.

Jeffs has been in jail in Utah or Texas continually since 2006 but is believed to still rule the FLDS.

One of his brothers, Lyle Jeffs, is thought to ensure his commandments are carried out and his followers are roughly estimated to be about 6,000.

The Hildale and Colorado City town councils are believed to be filled with Jeffs loyalists.

Doran Jessop, a member of the FLDS and the Hildale City Council, said Jeffs is in prison for advocating the principles of Christ. Asked about the sexual assault convictions, he said if Jeffs has 'done anything like that, it was directed toward the Lord.'

The 190 pupils at the Hildale public school are only a fraction of the town's estimated 1,200 school-aged children as many sect members still follow Jeffs' edict to not to send their children to class.

Nobody believes the Jeffs group will vanish anytime soon, if ever.