Someone asked: when the teacher says the last life is just like yesterday, does that mean each life flows continuously into the next, one after another?

Yes — because the law of karma means what we did in the past, what we create as cause in the present, will bear its result in the future. Whatever we did yesterday, we experience the result today; whatever we do today, we'll experience the result tomorrow. It continues on this way indefinitely.

As for whether the people close to us and our roles in life follow us across successive lives — generally, each person goes their own way according to their own karma. Only when there is a shared aspiration and similarly good causes built together does a chance arise to meet again. Meeting again in a future life is never easy, since people scatter onto separate paths, and there's no telling when — or whether — those paths will cross once more.

As for work and occupation, if a particular kind of work grows familiar and enjoyable to us, leaving a strong impression, that tends to carry forward into wanting similar work again in the next life. But if we dislike the work, that tends to carry forward as a wish to change to something else instead.