Agreed on the through-holes, and doubly agreed on the flux. All magic in soldering ultimately comes from flux. The other way you can easily solder to pads is t

Agreed on the through-holes, and doubly agreed on the flux. All magic in soldering ultimately comes from flux. The other way you can easily solder to pads is to use solder paste. Many people don't seem to realize that paste is good for more than just reflow. It's not as useful for situations like this, where you need a relatively large solder volume (so I'd also use your method), but it works quite well for smaller scale work.