Glad to hear you are enjoying your time with the game!
1 - As long as you have it on your person you get the bonus.
2 - You still roll to defend against the attack, yes.
3 - The intention with the rules was that Locations could reveal just a Thing for the player to find, but the game uses a d6 roll to determine if a Thing is found now (page 24). I understand the confusion and apologize for that.