im trying to pull up old messages

Hello lakisha247,

We'd love to assist you with getting your messages back. If you are using the Messages in iCloud feature, then once the messages are deleted, then they cannot be recovered. You can check this by going to Settings > Tap [your name] > Tap iCloud, and see if the Messages option is turned on. If it is not turned on, but you have a backup in iCloud that was done when the messages were on the device, then you can restore the device from the backup using the steps here: Restore or set up your device from an iCloud backup. Please keep in mind that if you restore from an older backup, then you will have to completely erase the device and the backup will only restore the content that was on the device at the time the backup was completed.

Best regards