Ok so after several internet searches and being on the phone with Apple for nearly 2 hours, having me reset settings, turning in and off stuff, updating, taking out the SIM card etc. etc. I found the setting to fix it MYSELF!! It's been an annoying feature for months- blocking ALL calls and texts that aren't in my contacts and I miss calls and verifications constantly. I had turned off silent unknown callers etc. but nothing worked!! Finally yesterday I went into screen time settings and there it was - allow contact with everyone!! So now it's fixed and I'm disappointed that Apple didn't know this after so much wasted time!! That should've been one setting to check! I'm posting this in case anyone runs into this problem you will know where to look because it's not an obvious setting to go into. I'm so relieved!!! It was sooo annoying!!