Given NO Revelations (basis for being apostles, at least Claimed!),
Given that nothing truly exciting happens to them at work...
I just can't fathom what floats their boat!
Boring travel to far-away conferences in the hinterlands, Do they count holes in the aircraft ceiling/overhead? They can't even make a pass at the SP's daughter or wife :(
take their wife / wives with them (to have nookie in the SPs guest bedroom)? I'm not so sure.
packing & unpacking bags for every week-end? Really??
Sitting in those gawd-awful meetings, pretending to be inspired / have anything new or innovative to offer?
Maybe they play exciting video games when no-one else is looking.
They get off on being "respected leaders" and the biggest fish in the Mormon pond. That's pretty much it.
The financial security and material benefits, as well as being super big shots within their respective extended Mormon families are added inducements. (In fact, I sometimes think the ego gratification and satisfaction they get from seeing their own relatives and friends constantly boasting about them and deferring to them and name dropping about how they related or friends with the GA in question...may be the biggest motivation of all. Most people innately want to be the "pride and joy" and "superstar" of their entire circle of relatives and friends.
It's the GAs who have huge extended families of mostly faithful Mormons who seem to be the most motivated to keep their GA ride going as long as they can.
Occasionally, you get a misfit in there like George P. Lee who actually went against the grain of his extended family and was basically an "orphan" in Mormonism. Even after SWK made him a GA it looks like he really wasn't getting the same kind of reinforcement and ego buzz that most of the other GAs were getting...so he ended up looking for his thrills elsewhere and went totally off the rails on his trip to Exco World.
Adolescents crave fame for fame's sake. They want to be on TV. They want to be like a pop music star. As people age and mature, they tend to realize that fame is nothing special and, in fact is generally a pain in the butt. But the adolescents who craved it so much and actually succeeded in putting themselves on the fame trajectory usually don't realize what a delusion it is until they're so far down the path that they don't even want to acknowledge that it wasn't the great thing they thought it was. (Possibly a reason why so many celebrities get into drugs to fill up the emptiness caused by the unexpected disappointment they increasingly feel about the fame that they craved for so long. Like anticipating a meal at a famous restaurant for two weeks and then finally having the meal and realizing that (a) it didn't really taste all that great and (b) there's nothing more to look forward to now.)
The GAs who really get into it seem to be frozen in their adolescent obsession with achieving high status as "leaders" in the church. They've invested so much in the fantasy of it, that they can't see any value in letting go or in belatedly acknowledging how superficial it all turned out to be.
carefully consider all the BS / pulp they feed & members gleefully consume.
the talks must be picked off a lazy-susan type rotation! Spin the wheel, pick one off the turntable...
Do they EVER step outside the box to rescue someone who's been hurt by a ChurchCo leader? I say NEVER has this happened, because it would undermine the underpinnings of 'the gospel'; surely (if he's conscious) Joey is having the Laugh of a Lifetime seeing what's become - resulted from his horniness / inability to keep his dick in his britches...
as am exmo, I was rather shocked by how the ushers acted about the leaders. I had only been to GC once before when I was 17 and it was ata the tabernacle. It was a whole different feeling, but hell sitting on those benches up in the balcony with no leg room (I'm tall), standing in line to get in.
So going to the conference center was an experience. Those guys think they are better than rock stars. They have a lot of fans. They obviously get off on the rock star status. They have to go visit the other people who adore them. Wendy is really getting off on her status. So is Russ.