What do I do to get a copy of messages?

Recently a friend of mine died. I have thousands upon thousands of texts running between us on my cell phone, which I want to print off, or save a copy of, somehow, without taking a million pictures or spending days on end typing it from the beginning and not being able to use the text portion of my phone until the task is completed. I contacted the cell company who said that due to privacy issues they do not have copies of messages that transpire between any customers.

Is there a way to transfer any of that to a computer file via connection? Or any other method?

Added (1). The cell phone type is iPhone 4S. If that helps.

Best luck.

http://www.transphone.net/ios-transfer/text-messages-from-iphone-to-computer.html

http://www.backuptrans.com/iphone-sms-transfer.html