I can see you now. I'm even downloading from you.
Normal eMule takes a lot from the mods, but they are always a step ahead with useful options, tweaks etc. Installing a mod is completetly painless and absolutely safe, just download any mod you wish (the binary version) and copy the files from the archive over your existing files in your emule directory (don't delete anything, just copy them over). Your download list and most options will remain intact.
Use google to find the download sites, there are many of them. The info which version a mod is based on is normally contained in the file name, be sure to get the newest one. The most popular mods are MorphXT (I'm using it atm, very good imo, although I'm getting slightly lower downloads), Pawcio (for some reason crashes on my machine), Black Hand (its development is discontinued), Sivka (I think they're still producing new versions). The good thing is that you can download a few of them and try them out yourself - if it crashes or you don't like it, just install another one (remember to set max connections each time). You can always go back to the official version.
Hope this helps.