Ah, I apologize for not posting an update. The problem has been solved:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31855904/emacs-sees-the-directory-with-the-new-org-mode-version-but-loads-the-old-versio
Thank you very much for the reply!

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 4:40 AM, Grant Rettke <gcr@wisdomandwonder.com>
wrote:

> Create a init file with only the contents and use that to start EMACS
>
> (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/org-20150803")
> (require 'org)
>
> And check the `org-version'. It ought to be what you expect. Did you
> get that from a ZIP? Did you follow the directions to generate the
> autoloads and stuff?
>
> Depending upon where and how you load 'org, another MELPA package
> could be requiring org-mode transitively, before your load call. It is
> very easy to have that happen.
> Grant Rettke
> --
> gcr@wisdomandwonder.com | http://www.wisdomandwonder.com/
> “Wisdom begins in wonder.” --Socrates
> “All creativity is an extended form of a joke.” --Kay
> ((λ (x) (x x)) (λ (x) (x x)))
> “Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop
> taking it seriously.” --Thompson
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 7:53 AM, Meir Goldenberg <mgoldenbe@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > The version of org-mode that came with my version of Emacs (24.5.2) is
> > 8.2.10. I have installed version 8.3.1 from ELPA and added this to my
> init
> > file:
> >
> > (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/org-20150803")
> > (require 'org)
> >
> > When I check the version of org in Emacs, it says:
> >
> > Org-mode version 8.2.10 (release_8.2.10 @
> > /home/meir/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20150803/)
> >
> > That is, it reports the old version and the new directory... (the
> built-in
> > version is located in /usr/local/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/org)
> >
> > Here is the relevant portion of my init file (there is nothing before
> this
> > portion):
> >
> > (require 'cl)
> >
> > ;; Org-mode that was shipped with Emacs
> > (setq load-path (remove-if (lambda (x) (string-match-p "org$" x))
> > load-path))
> > ;; ELPA
> > (setq load-path (remove-if (lambda (x) (string-match-p "org-20" x))
> > load-path))
> >
> > (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/org-20150803")
> >
> > (require 'package)
> > (add-to-list 'package-archives
> >              '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t)
> > (package-initialize)
> >
> > (require 'org)
> >
> > How do I get Emacs to load the new version of org-mode?
>