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SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints re-opened the Church's History Museum Tuesday, featuring brand-new exhibits focusing on the early history of the Church.

The museum has been closed for the past year for renovations and has reopened in time for this weekend's LDS General Conference. It's the first major renovation the museum has undergone since opening 30 years ago.

As you pass through the new exhibits in the LDS Church's Museum of History, you'll see key events in the establishment of the faith. The focus is on the early events in the Church's history, between Joseph Smith's First Vision in 1820 through the end of the Nauvoo era in 1846.

The new exhibits include original artifacts, and the curators of the museum want the exhibits to be very visual. There are interactive multimedia stops throughout the museum, along with videos and newly commissioned artwork.

The re-opening of the Church History Museum features a new exhibit, The Heavens Are Opened, which displays the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015. (Photo: Stacie Scott, Deseret News)

In late July, artist Douglas Fryer finished painting a spectacular mural depicting the Nauvoo temple — the finale to the new exhibit.

He believes this image of the Nauvoo temple at dawn, across the frozen Mississippi, speaks to the faith of the pioneers as they prepared to abandon their city and newly completed temple.

"I would hope the painting would help visitors to contemplate spiritual things that the saints were experiencing," Fryer said, "in order to create a lasting and significant monument to express the church's gratitude, admiration and respect for our pioneer forefathers."

A story of faith museum curators hope will not only give visitors more understanding, but help them leave inspired.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland attended the opening, and spoke about the importance of the exhibits.

"To bring people face to face with such exhibits is a way of bringing them face to face with people, with events across time, across space. Those whose lives may have been very different from our own, but who, like us, had hopes and dreams, frustrations and achievements that mark the milestones of those lives," said Elder Holland.

"To see more of our history and our heritage and embrace it, and to be grateful for it and ... give thanks to those who had a lot less and did so much with it in the early history of the church," he said.

The museum will officially open its doors to the public Wednesday at 9 a.m. and admission is free.

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