Subscription workflow/message tuning

If I understand all the issues I've read through a search on keyword: subscription, there are two broad concepts here:

1. The module creates a subscription page all by itself here: /newsletter/subscriptions
2. There is also a simplenews block available for activation

So I want anonymous users to be able to subscribe.

Question 1: on submission to either of the methods above, is it possible to give the user a nice confirmation message like:
"Thanks for the subscription, you will recieve a confirmation email shortly." ?

Currently, the screen merely reloads a blank subscription form, and that would be pretty confusing to the average user.

Question 2: The current wording in the block is not what I'm wanting (Stay informed on our latest news!). I searched and found these lines in the simplenews.module. I agree this is not a good place to change things, but I don't know whwere else to look? In any event , I did change the module, and the block message is still the same. What's the proper method for editing the wording in the block?

Question 3: What can be edited/changed on the subscription page in (1) above? What is generating this default subscription page and its path?

Thanks indeed.