one of my people dropped the gong piece and now it's apparently unretrievable. it's the only challenge i have left and i don't want to have to start all over, has this happened to anyone else?

Just close and reopen the game. That should bring it back.

thanks, it worked. i wish i knew that this morning!

your welcome common question

my villager was carring the box gong piece and i accidently dropped another villager on him.
the weird thing is i can see it on the puzzel and collegtible sceen but not on the game
i dont know if the gong is gonna work when i complete it

The gong is supposed to be on the puzzles and collections screen, anna7447!

I think anna7447 might mean she see's it everywhere except where the villagers take it once they've found it, here:

missKathy is right, thats what i ment.
today when my villager got the lagoon piece i followed her and i saw she took it to the reserch table
it happened the same thing

The villagers will take gong pieces to the research table until you have completed a certain puzzle. If you examine the two images MissKathy posted, you will see that the one on the left looks like it does at the start of the game. The one on the right is after a certain puzzle, and the gong pieces can be put in place.

when i finished a puzzle the gong appeared
thank you for helping