APEX

Trying to do something simple but I am not grasping something basic here.

I've created a LOV that is a query that returns display_value and return_value from a table. I've create a blank page and a region. Stuck this LOV on there as a Select List. Created a button that branches to another page and told it send this item P8_LIST value &P8_LIST.

The thing is when it displays the page and I select an item from the LOV it doesn't seem to be actually setting that value as the current value. If set a default value it on the select list seems to somewhat work by at least setting passing the default value in the URL. But the other page is not able to see the value when doing a
V('P8_LIST').

I'm missing something so when the value changes it updates the session state and refreshes the page? Should I be using sometype of javascript to be doing this?

Can someone point me to something that explains how to do this?