So I'm just back from the meeting where the letter got read.
After reading the full letter and the post-script here online, I was ready for quite a shock in the congregation. However, you always forget that people hearing it only and for the first time don't have time to deciper what is being said, especially if the reader is bad and the important bits get buried in all the waffle.
I would say the reaction of the audience at the time seemed to be boredom and/or confusion. One long-serving sister almost had her head in her hands - either in confusion or disappointment - it was hard to tell.
The elder doing the local needs part was the worst reader here - at the best of times he is quite a jittery and nervous guy, but I swear he was almost visibly sweating reading this letter - maybe because he knows what it really means for the congregation.
There was no mention of taking individual anonymous surveys here - maybe they will go for the "calculate a number" approach. I don't think anyone got the full meaning of the letter, and of course, most of the important stuff is buried in the post-script anyway.
The elder did a brief intro before he read the letter - how blessed we are etc. and even said how lucky we are that we are not like other religions: "we don't pass a plate and we don't do tithing". I found this quite sickening, because at that point he was just outright lying to a room full of people. He even referred back to Exodus 25:2 from the bible highlights which was also mentioned then as well, but with a positive spin about "how nice it is that we are like that" etc.
