Why is my iPhone 4S receiving text messages up to 3 hours after someone sent them?

I was down the street and my mother texted me that it's time for dinner at about 7:00, and I didn't receive it until right now, 8:30.It has gone much later before and I sometimes never receive a message at all. I don't live in a dead or weak zone, I have 5 bars as I write this. My mother has an iPhone too. Most of my friends do not however. I've tried going through and erasing a lot of texts, entire conversations, but still no improvement. My moms phone is not doing this do it can't be our carrier. I also have unlimited text so I haven't exceeded any limits.

In all seriousness, its because its an iphone. I've heard of several texting problems with iphones.

  • Why is my iPhone 4 receiving text messages late? I have an iPhone 4, I've had it for just a year. The past month or so, sometimes I'll receive a message. However, when I check the time it was received, it was usually 5 or 10 minutes ago, today I just got one from 18 minutes ago and it only just notified me now. It's starting to bug me a lot, can anyone tell me how to resolve this problem? The phone is also running the most current software, I always do updates (even though it steals all of my storage, grrr).
  • Why didn't I receive text messages people sent while I was away? - 1 I was away in Italy and I took my cell phone, but turned off roaming and data. Anyway, when we got back my sister received text messages people sent while she was away, but I didn't. People told me they texted me and I never got them. I don't this guy to think I'm ignoring him if he also sent me a text while I was away. I have an iPhone and my carrier is Verizon.
  • Why did my text messages disappear after I turned my iphone back on after it it had been powered down for the night? Okay, so I'm new to iphone this is my first one and it's the iphone6. Last night I powered it down for the night, and when I woke up a d turned it back on and unlocked the lock screen and went to my home screen it said I had two text messages and before I could click on it they disappeared. So where did they go and is there any way to find them?
  • Why am I not receiving text messages because of iMessage? When I have my iMessage on, I'm not receiving texts from my iPhone using friends who have their iMessage OFF. But if I turn my iMessage off, then I don't receive texts from my friends that have their iMessage ON. Is there a way to fix this? Is there a way I can receive texts from everyone while my iMessage is on, regardless if their iMessage is on or off?