Importing entire folder ridiculous

Please expand upon your import problem, state what steps you take and include screenshots of the import panel, etc.

@JohanElzenga is absolutely correct about the logic behind exporting in general. Rereading your post, I'm not exactly clear what you are actually trying to do. Once you've imported a photo into LR, in general there is no reason to reimport it unless something went wrong. You can work on a photo that is 'tracked' in the LR catalog and export a version of that edited photo. Assuming you don't then delete the photo from LR, if you then decide to make further edits, the image is already in the catalog with the history of the edits you previously made. You can then further edit the image and, if desired, do another export which incorporate ALL of the edits since you first imported the file.

This second export is disconnected from the first export and in no way updates the file created in the first export. On each export, you choose where to put the exported file and, typically, LR doesn't care about it after the export so you are free to do whatever you wish with each exported version.

Now, if you want to maintain a relationship between the photo in LR and the version you've 'exported' so that when you make further edits the 'exported' version is updated then you need a Publish service which is similar to exporting but has additional functionality to be able to sync changes. What can be sync'd between the versions depends on the Publish service you use.

So, after I import the file and work on it, after I export it, this program has a hell of time finding it again.  I get messages like, "no file' or someting like that. 

I believe you misunderstand how Lightroom works. You do not have to export a file to keep working on it. Exporting creates a copy, meant for use outside of Lightroom. That is why Lightroom does not keep track of exported files, unless you check the option to add the exported file to the catalog when you export it (this is a checkbox in the export dialog). If you don't check that box but still want the exported file in the catalog, then you would indeed have to import the exported copy, because it's a new image.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your work flow but I think you can import a single file from a folder using the "import" dialog (accessed by Ctrl-Shift-I on a PC).

When the dialog opens, there is a folder tree on the left side. Navigate to the folder which contains the photo you want to import. Make sure the "Add" option is selected on the top bar. The grid will default to showing all of the photos in the folder but there is a bar at the top of the grid with a checkbox "All Photos". Uncheck that box which should uncheck all of the photos in the grid. Find the photo you want to import and just check its box. Make sure all of the import settings in the right panel are set for what you want to happen during the import. Then start the import by clicking the "Import" button in the lower right corner.

By choosing "Add", you will add photo(s) to the catalog without moving them which is what I believe you want to do.