If you are just looking for one for texting, I use Handcent and got the emoji plugin with it. I then enabled the iPhone version of emoji and I haven't heard of any issues when I use it.
Your sdcard should be mapped to a couple of locations. It really resides in /data/media/0, but that same folder should also show up in /sdcard, /storage/emulated/0, /storage/emulated/legacy, and /storage/sdcard0. All the content should be the same in every one of those folders. None of it is duplicated as they all point to the same place.
My personal opinion on this... $120 will get you the screen, but you still have to take apart your device to replace it, thus voiding any warranty (and dealing with the complexity of the phone while taking it apart). Paying an extra $10 (plus any shipping) means that you will get your phone professionally repaired and it will likely keep your warranty intact. I would have LG do it (they may even be willing to do an advanced exchange and send you a new unit and once you get it, you send the old one back... HTC did this for me with my Nexus One).
No need for a mod. They have plenty available in the Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=t9+dialer&c=apps